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NOTES 


EARLY  TRAINING  OF  CHILDREN 


BY 


MRS.   FRANK   MALLESON 


BOSTON 

D.  C.  HEATH  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS 

1893 

Aj\    1906 


)m  Uot^s  an  gcbkutc!tr 


HAPPINESS     OF    CHILDREN. 


"To  all  of  us,  the  expressly  appointed  schoolmasters  and  schoolings  we 
get  are  as  nothing  compared  with  the  unappointed,  incidental,  and  continual 
ones,  whose  school  hours  are  all  the  days  and  nights  of  our  existence,  and 
whose  lessons,  noticed  and  unnoticed,  stream  in  upon  us  with  every  breath 
we  draw."— Carlyle's  "Life  of  Sterling." 

"  Thou  therefore  which  teachest  another,  teachest  thou  not  thyself?" 

Romans,  chap,  ii,  v.  21. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGH 

Introductory       5 

CHAPTER  H. 
Infant  Life 15 

CHAPTER  III. 
Nursery  Management 28 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Employment  and  Occutation  of  Children        .      46 

CHAPTER  V. 
Some  Cardinal  Virtues.— Reverence    ....     65 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Some  Cardinal  Virtues.— Truth 'ji 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Some  Cardinal  Virtues.— Love 88 

CHAPTER  VI IL 

Some  Cardinal  Viriues.-— Obedience  to  Conscience; 
Duty 100 

CIIAI'TER  IX. 
Rewards  and  Punishments 115 


NOTES 


EARLY   TRAINING  OF   CHILDREN 


CHAPTER   I. 

/SO  3^ 
INTRODUCTORY. 

"The  problem  is,  *to  train  up  a  child  in  the  way'  he  should 
grow.  Glow  he  will  in  any  case;  what  we  want  is,  so  to  control 
the  circumstances  that  call  forth  his  activity  that  he  shall  grow 
as  straight  as  possible,  as  much  as  possible,  in  as  many  direc- 
tions as  possible,  but  as  harmoniously  as  possible." 

James  Ward. 

There  are  few  gifts  to  man  more  precious,  and 

at  the  same  time  more  common,  than  the  eift  of 

„xc^ children  ;  and  yet  the  art  of  education,  of  train- 


'Tiing  the  young-  into  useful  and  virtuous  men  and 
^  women,  is  widely  misunderstood  or  neglected.  In 
how  few  families  do  we  see  the  result  of  thoughtful 
and  careful  practical  education !  in  how  many  do 
we  find  that  want  of  good  training  which  results 
in    so-called    "  spoiled    children " !       The    very 


6      Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

phrase  implies  an  unfulfilled  capacity  of  excellence. 
For  all  the  virtues  of  childhood,  these  children 
exhibit  the  contraries  ;  in  the  place  of  intelligent 
activity,  indifference  and  Idleness  ;  of  obedience 
and  self-control,  angry  self-assertion  and  wilful- 
ness ;  of  loving  confidence,  irreverent  curiosity ;  of 
serenity,  fretful  impatience.  These  manifestations 
are  not  the  growth  of  a  day.  They  are  the  result 
of  7nanagernent  uninspired  by  a  guiding  prin- 
ciple, of  management  in  which  training  has  no 
place. 

Yet  few  fathers  and  mothers  experience  the 
first  joy  of  parentage  without  feeling  also  some- 
thing of  the  solemn  responsibility  it  includes. 
What  mother  folding  her  arms  around  her  new- 
born infant  can  wish  less  than  that  it  should 
become  "as  much  as  possible  an  instrument  of 
happiness  to  himself,  and  next,  to  other  beings  "  ? 
What  father  appreciating  the  mute  contrast  of 
his  baby's  tender  helplessness  and  his  own  mature 
strength,  can  do  less  than  resolve  that  the  silent 
appeal  for  protection  and  guidance  shall  be  faith- 
fully met  ?  But  such  germs  of  parental  duty  do 
not  include  a  definite  ideal  of  education,  nor  do 
they  point  out  how  educational  ends  are  to  be 
attained  by  educational  means.  "  It  is  a  truth 
yet  remaining  to  be  recognized,"  says  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  in  his  "  Education,"  '*  that  the  last  stage  of 


Introductory.  7 

mental  development  of  each  man  and  woman  is 
to  be  reached  only  through  a  proper  discharge  of 
the  parental  duties."  And  as  the  present  race  of 
parents  has  not  found  the  Art  of  Education  in  their 
curriculum  of  studies,  as  Mr.  Spencer  hopes  future 
generations  will  do,  they  are  left  to  deal  with  the 
problem  of  infant  life,  freshly  given  for  their  in- 
dividual study  and  solution,  without  preparation, 
and  often  indeed  without  the  idea  that  preparation 
is  necessary. 

For  the  average  parents  the  great  educational 
thinkers  seem  to  have  existed  in  vain  :  the  wisdom 
of  Plato,  with  its  perennial  freshness  and  beauty, 
the  noble  ideal  of  Milton,  the  excellent  sense  of 
Locke,  the  originality  of  Rousseau,  the  loving 
insight  of  Pestalozzi,  the  abundant  thought  and 
suggestiveness  of  modern  writers  on  education, 
are  guiding  lights  which  exist  not  for  them.  They 
are  at  no  trouble  to  settle  which  definition  of 
education  is  most  satisfactory  to  them,  they  are 
not  oppressed  by  the  importance  of  the  subject 
with  which  they  have  to  deal.  The  child  belongs 
to  them  ;  its  relations  to  society  and  humanity 
do  not  come  within  the  scope  of  their  thought. 
They  gather  up,  in  some  sort  of  fashion,  the  cur- 
rent ideas  of  their  time  with  reo-ard  to  the  brino-ino- 
up  of  children,  and  they  act  upon  these.  If  they 
are  well-to-do,  a  conventional  care  and  treatment 


8      Notes  071  the  Eai'ly  Training  of  Children. 

is  demanded  of  them  :  "  experienced  nurses  "  are 
the  first  necessity  ;  but  as  a  rule  they  are  not 
engaged  Hke  other  functionaries,  because  they  are 
specially  qualified  to  handle  the  material  entrusted 
to  them.  Grooms  and  gardeners  are  supposed  to 
know  something  about  the  nature  of  the  horses, 
or  the  conditions  of  plant  life,  with  which  they 
have  to  deal :  valuable  property  might  be  injured 
by  their  ignorance  or  want  of  skill.  Children 
alas  !  demand,  as  most  parents  think,  no  special 
understanding  or  management.  It  is  not  recoo^- 
nized  that  their  sensitive  and  tender  natures 
require  to  be  dealt  with  by  persons  qualified  by 
temperament  and  instruction  ;  so  that  nurses  as 
a  class,  though  they  may  have  some  small  know- 
ledge of  the  physical  bringing  up  of  children,  are 
wholly  unfit  to  deal  with  the  complex  life  given  into 
their  charge.  They  are  even  too  blind  and  ignorant 
to  be  aware  of  the  difficulties  of  their  task.  They 
govern  by  rule  of  thumb,  kindly  if  they  are  kindly 
women,  harshly  and  oppressively  if  they  are  the 
reverse  ;  their  nursery  management  consists 
mainly  in  repressing  activity,  levelling  individuality, 
obtaining  obedience  at  any  cost  when  possible, 
and  fostering  vanity  and  emulation.  Ordinary 
nursery  life  is  a  tissue  of  dreariness,  ennui,  and 
repression. 

The    life    of  the    schoolroom,   which    succeeds 


Introductory.  9 

that  of  the  nursery,  is  after  the  same  pattern.  A 
governess  is  engaged  to  teach  probably  two 
languages  besides  her  own,  music,  arithmetic, 
history,  and  every  other  subject  needed  for  the 
curriculum  of  schools.  In  her  there  will  probably 
be  more  ability  to  treat  the  children,  but  she  will 
doubtless  share  the  educational  perplexity  of  the 
parents,  and  it  will  soon  be  found  that  the  boys 
of  the  family  are  "  beyond  the  management  of 
women,"  and  must  be  sent  to  school ;  while  the  girls 
are  left  to  submit  to  or  to  rebel  against,  the  rule  of 
the  schoolroom,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  to  pick 
up  what  knowledge  is  possible  under  such  imper- 
fect provision  of  instruction.  And  the  same  want 
of  guiding  principles  of  action  is  shown  in  the 
choice  of  schools.  How  few  parents  carefully 
inquire  into  the  government  and  methods  pursued 
at  any  school  they  select ;  how  few  consider  in 
what  way  the  ends  of  parental  care  will  be 
furthered  by  school-life  ;  how  few  choose  this  or 
that  particular  school  for  reasons  of  a  real  educa- 
tional value ! 

In  families  where  there  is  less  material  wealth 
and  an  equal  ignorance  of  practical  education, 
some  of  these  evils  are  intensified  :  the  nurses  are 
of  a  commoner  type,  the  governess  less  capable, 
the  schools  of  a  presumably  lower  class.  On  the 
other   hand,    where    the   scale   of  wealth    is    still 


lo    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

lower,  the  children  get  the  advantages,  such  as 
they  are,  of  State  education  joined  to  a  closer 
family  life,  and  also  the  training  in  usefulness, 
intelligence,  and  self-dependence  often  to  be  found 
where  every  member  of  the  household  is  expected 
to  contribute  to  the  common  good. 

But  in  all  classes  we  find  a  fatal  want  of 
educational  ideals,  with  an  equally  fatal  powerless- 
ness  of  adapting  educational  means  to  ends.  A 
definite  aim,  however,  a  clear  knowledge  of  what 
is  desirable  to  attain  in  the  training  of  children  is 
essential ;  for  their  education  must  be  accomplished 
in  the  life  of  minutes  and  hours,  in  infinite  small 
degrees ;  and  the  great  division  of  the  work 
makes  it  difficult  to  keep  the  goal  of  the 
labour  always  in  view,  and  to  see  how  each  part 
will  tell  on  the  whole.  The  author  of  "  Natural 
Religion"  forcibly  states  this  first  need  in  rational 
and  successful  education  :  — 

"  Look,  then,  how  the  English  people  treat 
their  children.  Try  to  discover,  from  the  way 
they  train  them,  from  the  education  they  give 
them,  what  they  wish  them  to  be.  They  have 
ceased,  almost  consciously  ceased,  to  have  any 
ideal  at  all.  Traces  may  still  be  observed  of  an 
old  ideal  not  quite  forgotten  :  here  and  there  a 
vague  notion  of  instilling  hardihood,  a  really 
decided  wish  to  teach  frankness  and  honesty,  and 


Introductory.  1 1 

in  a  larofe  class,  also  ofood  manners ;  but  these 
are,  after  all,  only  negative  virtues.  What 
do  they  wish  their  children  to  aim  at  ?  What 
pursuits  do  they  desire  for  them  ?  Except  that, 
when  they  grow  up,  they  are  to  make  or  have 
a  livelihood,  and  take  a  satisfactory  position  in 
society,  and,  in  the  meanwhile,  that  it  would  be 
hard  for  them  not  to  enjoy  themselves  heartily, 
most  parents  would  be  puzzled  to  say  what  they 
wish  for  their  children  ;  and,  whatever  they  wish, 
they  wish  so  languidly,  that  they  entrust  the 
realization  of  it  almost  entirely  to  strangers,  being 
themselves,  so  they  say — and,  indeed  the  Philis- 
tine or  irreligious  person  always  Is — much  engaged. 
The  parent,  from  sheer  embarrassment  and  want 
of  an  ideal,  has  in  a  manner  abdicated,  and  it  has 
become  necessary  to  set  apart  a  special  class  for 
the  cultivation  of  parental  feelings  and  duties. 
The  modern  schoolmaster  should  change  his 
name,  for  he  has  become  a  kind  of  standing  or 
professional  parent." 

But  no  schoolmaster,  however  wise,  can  supply 
the  omission  of  early  parental  care,  which  must 
beofin  at  least  with  the  life  of  the  child  in  the 
cradle.  It  is  true  I  have  known  enlisfhtened 
people  who  rated  so  highly  the  special  gifts  needed 
in  the  early  training  of  children  that  they  were 
sceptical  of  finding  them  in  ordinary  families,  and 


1 2    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  CJiildren. 

advocated  children  being  sent  from  home  (I  do 
not  know  at  what  age)  to  the  care  of  those  who 
possessed  these  pecuHar  quahfications  for  training  ; 
but  in  modern  Hfe,  where  numbers  of  homeless 
little  ones  have  been  collected  together,  it  has 
been  found  that  the  best  way  of  training  them  even 
into  useful  human  beings,  has  been  to  put  them 
into  small  groups  under  the  guardianship  of  a 
factitious  mother  or  father,  and  thus  imitate  in 
some  sort  the  essential  features  of  family  life. 
As  far  as  we  can  see  there  is,  and  should  be,  no 
escape  from  the  sacred  obligations  of  parental 
duty.  We  must  look  to  parents  and  to  none  else 
for  radical  improvements  in  the  early  training  of 
children  :  we  can  appeal  to  none,  if  not  to  them, 
for  a  truer  justice  towards  those  who  are  involun- 
tarily dependent  on  them;  and  we  must  trust  that 
with  a  finer  conception  of  their  duty  to  offspring 
they  will  see  a  first  obligation  in  preparing  them- 
selves for  the  duties  of  parents. 

In  the  following  "  Notes "  I  address  myself 
with  some  confidence,  though  with  due  humility,  to 
parents.  I  believe  so  much  in  both  the  nobility 
and  the  difficulty  of  their  duties  to  their  children, 
that  I  think  they  will  be  willing  to  weigh  the 
results  arrived  at  through  the  experience  of 
another  educator,  that  they  will  receive  with 
some  interest  her  views  concerning  the  aims  to  be 


Introductory.  1 3 

striven  for  in  the  daily  education  of  children,  and 
will  consider  with  some  attention  the  methods 
she  suggests  for  obtaining  certain  desirable 
results.  Both  the  ideals  I  would  present  to  my 
readers,  and  the  methods  I  urge  should  be 
employed  to  attain  them,  will  best  be  seen  in  deal- 
ing with  the  several  divisions  of  my  subject.  I 
will  only  put  in  condensed  form  here  what  I  shall 
try  to  elaborate  in  every  one  of  the  following 
pages. 

The  main  point  is  to  perceive  clearly  the 
ideal  to  be  striven  for.  It  can  never  be  satis- 
factory in  education  to  aim  at  less  than  the 
highest;  the  child  given  to  us  to  deal  with 
may  have  within  him  (I  use  the  masculine 
form  throughout  as  inclusive  of  both  sexes)  all 
the  capacity  of  excellence  to  be  found  in  the 
best  of  the  race  :  educate  him  at  least  as  if  he 
had.  Do  not  begin  with  limitations,  they  will 
force  themselves  upon  us  soon  enough.  That 
must  always  be  a  poor  ideal  that  reaches  no 
farther  than  a  repetition  of  ourselves,  or  narrows 
the  ambition  of  the  educator  to  fitting  the  child 
for  some  small  niche  in  the  industrial  world.  We 
have  to  educate,  as  far  as  is  permitted  us,  a 
perfect  man  or  woman,  nothing  lower  or  smaller ; 
and  in  proportion  to  the  faithfulness  with  which 
we  keep  this  standard  in  view  will  be  our  measure 


14    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

of  success.  In  pursuance  of  this  standard,  we 
must  do  our  best  to  secure  to  our  child  health 
and  full  physical  development,  that  the  body  may 
be  as  far  as  possible  a  perfect  instrument  of  the 
mind.  We  must  train  the  senses  to  be  acute  and 
accurate,  the  intellect  to  be  keen  and  clear  and 
strong,  disciplined  to  the  power  of  concentrated 
attention  and  the  love  of  work  :  we  must  make 
the  moral  nature  courageous,  truthful,  loving,  and 
unselfish  ;  we  must  foster  those  spiritual  qualities 
which  link  ordinary  daily  life  with  what  is  per- 
manent and  eternal.  Our  task  is,  to  train  for  life, 
for  useful,  honourable  life,  worthy  in  being  and  in 
doing,  begun  in  mortality,  but  to  reach,  we  hope, 
beyond  and  above  it. 


Infant  Life,  15 


CHAPTER    II. 

INFANT    LIFE. 

"  Man  is  like  a  plant,  which  requires  a  favourable  soil  for 
the  full  expansion  of  its  natural  or  innate  powers." 

Lecky's  '■'■History  of  European  Morals." 

Scientific  and  unscientific  opinion  agree  that 
the  influences  affecting  the  child  begin  before 
birth.  I  do  not  know  how  far  physiologists 
believe  it  will  ever  be  possible  to  control  and 
direct  these  influences ;  but  it  seems  probable 
that,  with  the  advance  of  knowledge  and  reflection 
in  this  regard,  men  and  women  will  be  more 
impelled  by  latent  physiological  convictions,  and 
consequent  instincts,  into  unions  good  for  the 
possible  offspring  of  their  marriage.  We  see 
these  instincts  now  operating  against  glaring 
physiological  unsuitability,  such  as  hereditary 
madness  ;  and  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  hope 
that  sooner  or  later  secondary  influences  which 
now  determine  marriages  will  be  repudiated,  and 
unions  made  which  satisfy  the  whole  natures  of 
the  men  and  women  who  contract  them ;  unions 
in  which  "  fallingr  in  love  "  shall  be  evidence  that 


1 6    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

while  the  senses  and  the  fancy  are  pleased,  the 
intellectual  and  moral  aspirations  of  both  are 
satisfied,  and  the  sanctification  of  noble  passion 
follows  the  mutual  attraction  of  each  and  every 
part  of  the  two  natures. 

It  may  be  that  the  most  powerful  influences 
affecting  the  unborn  child  will  always  continue  to 
be  the  fitness  of  the  parents  for  union,  the  strength 
of  their  love,  and  their  desire  for  offspring.  In 
the  present  state  of  opinion,  when  these  influen- 
ces are  scarcely  recognized,  others  which  are  ac- 
knowledged are  not  strongly  enforced.  Expectant 
mothers  are  enjoined  to  live  hygienic  lives  for 
the  sake  of  the  coming  child ;  but  they  are 
not  educated  to  think  it  right  or  expedient  to 
alter  the  tenour  of  their  lives  in  more  important 
particulars  for  its  sake.  Yet  I  think  weighty 
reasons  might  be  advanced  to  show  that  the  life 
of  the  expectant  mother  should  be  filled  and 
governed  by  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  child; 
and  that  not  only  should  she  avoid  whatever  is 
injurious  to  her  physical  health,  but,  regarding 
herself  as  the  appointed  medium  of  influence  to 
her  babe,  should  actively  guard  her  own  mental 
and  spiritual  health,  "  possess  her  soul  in  patience," 
and,  serenely  receptive,  keep  herself  sensitive  to  all 
ennobling  influences.  It  has  been  divinely  ordered 
that  the  mother  shall  wait  many  months  for  her 


Infajit  Life.  17 

child.  This  time  is  obviously  meant  to  be  one 
of  preparation  in  several  directions.  We  think 
even  a  poor  mother  strangely  careless  if  she  does 
not  then  provide  shelter  and  clothes.  But  how 
more  than  equally  necessary  is  it  that  she  should,  in 
addition  to  material  comforts,  prepare  herself  to  re- 
ceive the  cominof  aift!  If  the  loveliness  and  holiness 
of  such  gifts  were  not  obscured  to  ordinary  vision 
by  their  commonness,  could  parents  ever  receive 
them  without  befitting  humility  and  reverence  ? 

Traininof,  defined  to  be  "  directed  ofrowth," 
begins  with  the  birth  of  the  child.  It  is  im- 
mediately sensitive  to  impressions  of  outward 
things ;  these  cause  it  pain  or  pleasure,  and  it 
manifests  its  resistance  to  the  one  and  its  desire 
for  the  other.  It  feels  hunger,  and  the  shock  of 
cold  air,  and  it  cries  ;  it  is  soothed  by  food  and 
warmth,  it  is  quiet  and  sleeps.  It  very  soon  shows 
a  sense  of  its  own  helplessness  and  need  of  human 
protection  and  sympathy ;  and  this  need  should 
not  be  disregarded.  I  know  that  some  good 
nurses  point  with  triumph  to  infants  "  who  give 
no  trouble,"  who  will  allow  themselves  to  be  laid 
in  their  cra(Ues,  and  fall  asleep,  who  are  "  spoiled  " 
by  no  rocking  or  over-much  dandling.  But  I 
maintain  that  the  traditional  lullaby  is  the  natural 
satisfaction  of  a  natural  craving,  and  cannot  be 
abandoned  without  proportionate  harm.      Love  is 

B 


1 8    Notes  Oil  tJie  Early  Training  of  Children. 

essential  to  an  infant's  well-beinof ; — "  a  babe  Is 
fed  with  milk  and  praise,"  tender  Charles  Lamb 
reminds  us, — and  the  mother  naturally  manifests 
hers  in  brooding  over  it,  in  giving  up  time  to  it, 
in  rocking,  and  moving,  and  soothing  her  child 
in  many  manifold  ways  ;  and  if  "  beauty  born  of 
murmuring  sound  shall  pass  into"  its  "face," 
how  much  more  subtly  shall  love  pass  into  the 
spiritual  seedling,  and  nurture  it  into  ampler  life  ? 
Again,  we  are  often  told  that  crying  is  good  for 
the  child  ;  but  we  have  to  remember  that  crying  is 
its  protest  against  pain,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
and  this  warningcannot  be  neglected  with  impunity. 
We  may  take  it  as  an  axiom,  that  the  healthier 
and  the  better  managed  the  babe  is,  the  less  it 
will  cry.  I  do  not  pretend  to  give  here  directions 
for  the  physical  care  of  infants  ;  these  can  be 
found  in  many  good  treatises  devoted  exclusively 
to  the  subject  ;  I  wish  only  to  touch  upon  one  or 
two  points  where  the  physical  management  of  the 
infant  involves  its  moral  training,  and  I  regard 
the  avoidance  of  crying  as  a  very  important  step 
in  the  latter.  The  baby  should  have  its  wants 
anticipated,  to  prevent  its  crying  to  express 
them,  and  attention  should  be  given  to  it  quietly, 
promptly,  lovingly  ;  it  should  never  be  needlessly 
thwarted  in  its  desires,  never  made  passionate 
by    inattention   or   resistance;   it   should    be   k<.pt 


Infant  Life.  19 

serene  and  happy,  and  this  care  should  extend  to 
every  moment  of  an  infant's  day.  With  a  recur- 
rence of  actions  at  stated  times,  habits  are  formed, 
and  the  child  will  soon  fall  into  sleeping  and 
takinor  its  food  at  req^ular  intervals.  These  should 
be  carefully,  though  not  too  rigorously,  observed. 
I  have  known  conscientious  mothers  prefer  to  let 
infantscry  with  hunger,  rather  than  feed  them  before 
the  allotted  time;  but  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that 
the  physical  wants  of  even  new-born  infants  may 
be  subject  to  some  variation,  and  the  sympathy  of 
the  mother  will  lead  her  to  study  and  gradually 
interpret  the  baby's  desires.  This  subtle  guide  — 
sympathy — is  first  awakened  by  very  simple  needs. 
The  mother's  first  lessons  are  comparatively  easy  ; 
accepting  them,  she  will  find  they  increase  in 
complexity  with  the  growing  life  of  the  child  ;  and 
thenceforth,  while  education  goes  on,  a  watchful 
study  of  the  nature  before  her  will  be  required  of 
her,  until,  helped  by  her  own  wonderful  affinity 
to  it,  she  learns  to  put  herself  in  imagination  into 
the  place  of  the  child,  and  to  understand  what  it 
feels  and  needs. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  how  soon  a  baby  may  cry  out 
of  wilfulness,  for  ends  beyond  the  imperative  satis- 
faction of  its  wants;  the  needs  of  hunger,  cold,  sleep, 
change  of  position,  the  necessity  of  movement. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that   Rousseau,  with 


20    Notes  oil  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

subtle  perception,  has#touched  upon  a  truth,  when 
he  says  that  the  baby,  while  experimenting  on  its 
surroundings,  tries  to  discover,  amongst  other  ex- 
periments, how  far  the  power  of  its  own  person- 
ality can  reach,  how  much  it  can  obtain  "  de 
I'empire,  et  de  la  domination."  Very  soon,  I 
am  sure,  the  mother  has  to  make  it  feel  that  she 
herself  follows  a  higher  law  than  her  own  will ; 
that  she  seeks  the  baby's  welfare,  body  and  soul, 
and,  having  found  the  path  to  it,  she  cannot  yield 
to  influences  which  would  lead  her  to  disobey  this 
direction.  I  believe  this  to  be  a  fundamental 
principle  of  influence.  The  child  soon  recognizes 
that  its  mother  is  swayed  by  no  variable  mood, 
by  no  self-will,  anger,  or  impatience,  but  by  a 
steadfast  love  and  devotion  to  duty;  and  this 
becomes  in  time  to  it  a  guiding  force. 

Thus  the  traininsf  beo^un  even  in  the  first  month 
of  its  existence,  continues  as  its  life  unfolds  into  a 
larger  consciousness  of  the  external  world  around 
it ;  its  senses  become  alive  to  more  numerous  and 
to  different  impressions^ ;  it  suns  itself  in  the  love 
shown  it,  and  soon  answers  the  smile  upon  its 
mother's  face  ;   its  education  is  fairly  begun. 

And  now,  following  the  example  of  the  gar- 
dener who  places  the  plants  committed  to  his 
care  in  the  situation  and  soil  which  suits  them,  we 
have   to  arranjie   that  our   human   nursling-  shall 


Infant  Life.  21 

have  the  best  conditions  for  growth  that  we  have 
power  to  command  or  to  mould.  And  the  first  of 
those  conditions  must  be  the  continued  personal 
care  of  the  mother  for  the  child.  It  seems 
strange  that  there  should  be  any  need  for  dwell- 
ing upon  such  an  apparently  obvious  duty  ;  and 
yet,  as  Rousseau  insisted  upon  the  obligation  of 
French  mothers  to  nurse  and  tend  their  infants  at 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  so  at  the  end 
of  this,  it  is  necessary  to  protest  against  those 
customs,  those  claims  of  "  society,"  which  make 
many  mothers  give  over  entirely  to  others  the 
personal  care  of  their  children.  I  know  many 
young  mothers  will  say,  "  I  know  nothing  about 
babies  ;  I  should  be  afraid  of  the  responsibility 
you  say  I  ought  to  take  ;  "  or,  "  If  I  turn  nurse,  I 
should  destroy  my  husband's  life,  and  my  own 
too."  I  maintain,  nevertheless,  that  the  first 
duty  laid  upon  mothers  is  to  make  themselves 
fit  for  their  responsibility.  Young  mothers  natu- 
rally must  always  lack  experience ;  but  thought 
and  thoughtful  observation,  guided  by  a  conscien- 
tious devotion,  will  go  far  in  this,  as  in  all  other 
human  obligations,  to  make  up  for  actual  expe- 
rience, and  the  life  of  every  day  removes  the 
want  little  by  little.  Then,  as  to  the  second  pro- 
test, I  take  it  as  theoretically  acknowledged  that 
both  parents  have  joint  responsibility  in  the  edu- 


2  2    Notes  on  tJie  Early  Ti^aining  of  Children. 

cation  of  the  child  ;  and  that  though  the  mother 
is  pre-eminently  fitted  for  the  chief  care  of  the 
offspring,  the  best  powers  of  both  minds  will  be 
needed  for  the  gradual  and  complete  develop- 
ment of  the  young  creature.  In  proportion  as 
this  is  granted,  the  father  will  be  prepared  to 
make  some  sacrifice  of  time  and  comfort  for  the 
sake  of  his  child,  and  the  mother,  as  guardian  of 
the  household  comfort  and  happiness,  will  do  her 
best  to  harmonize,  when  her  babe  is  born,  the 
new  and  old  duties.  Her  husband's  brain  is 
active  and  hard-worked  ;  she  must  take  care  it  is 
not  worried  by  a  baby's  crying,  or  incessant  need 
of  attention.  The  man's  evenings  are  his  time 
for  rest  and  recreation  ;  however  devoted  to  the 
baby  both  may  be,  she  must  ensure  that  his 
quiet  reading  or  music  is  left  undisturbed.  It  is 
one  of  the  hardest  yet  most  necessary  duties  of 
a  woman's  life  to  carry  on  with  attention,  har- 
mony, and  serenity  the  several  parallel  threads  of 
her  household  life  ;  every  one  demands  her  con- 
stant care,  the  relation  between  every  one  must 
be  kept,  and  she  must  be  strong  enough  to  fulfil 
hourly,  even  momentarily,  claims  upon  her  intel- 
lect, heart,  and  patience. 

I  do  not  propose,  however,  that  the  mother 
should  have  no  assistance  in  the  care  of  her  child, 
but  I   do  urge  that  the   assistance    she  chooses 


Infant  Life.  23 

shall  be  entirely  subordinate  to  her.  She  must 
never  give  up  to  any  one  the  personal  oversight 
of  all  that  concerns  it.  Whatever  assistant  she 
selects  should  be  primarily  healthy,  and  equable 
and  gentle  in  temper,  child-loving  and  capable  of 
devotion,  truthful,  refined,  and  intelligent  in  com- 
prehending and  obeying  the  spirit  as  well  as  the 
letter  of  directions.  I  know  young  women  pos- 
sessing such  qualities  are  difficult  to  get,  but  they 
are  to  be  found ;  and  when  such  a  nurse  is  met 
with,  the  mother  should  treat  her  with  a  consi- 
deration and  kindness  which  will  render  her  life 
contented  and  happy.  She  must  remember  that 
even  the  subordinate  care  of  the  best  child  is  a 
strain  upon  the  powers  of  mind  and  body  alike, 
and  that  the  more  devoted  and  excellent  the  care, 
the  p^reater  is  the  need  of  chano-e  and  recreation. 
Locke  wisely  says,  "  Children  should,  from  their 
first  beginning  to  talk,  have  some  discreet,  sober, 
nay,  wise  person  about  them,  whose  care  it  should 
be  to  fashion  them  aright  and  keep  them  from 
all  ill,  especially  the  infection  of  bad  company. 
I  think  this  province  requires  great  sobriety, 
temperance,  tenderness,  diligence,  and  discretion, 
qualities  hardly  to  be  had  for  ordinary  salaries, 
nor  easily  to  be  found  anywhere.  As  for  the 
charge  of  it,  I  think  it  will  be  the  money  best  laid 
out  that  can  be  about  our  children  ;  spare  it  in 


24    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

toys,  in  silk,  and  ribbons,  laces,  and  other  useless 
expenses,  as  much  as  you  please." 

Having  secured  the  right  kind  of  help,  the 
mother  should  arrange  that  the  room,  or  rooms, 
set  apart  for  the  child's  special  use  should  be  as 
near,  instead  of  as  far  removed  from  her  own 
as  possible ;  indeed,  that  with  due  regard  to 
other  claims,  it  shall  live,  as  we  have  said,  with 
her,  and  that  her  eyes,  ears,  and  intelligence 
should  take  cognizance  of  all  details  of  its  food, 
exercise,  and  rest,  so  that  the  routine  she  sets 
about  it  may  be  subject  to  the  immediate  modifi- 
cation or  re-adjustment  of  her  informed  judg- 
ment. The  wind  is  cold,  or  in  the  east,  and  the 
infant  must  be  taken  out  of  doors  where  it  will 
have  shelter ;  the  heat  is  great,  and  customary 
clothing  must  be  exchanged  for  cooler  ;  its  appe- 
tite flags,  or  its  sleep  is  less  quiet  than  usual,  and 
the  mother  should  be  instantly  roused  to  the  im- 
portance of  increased  watchfulness.  No  detail  in 
baby  life  is  too  trivial  for  such  daily  observation. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  nursery  of  a  child 
must  be  in  harmony  with  the  means  and  style 
of  living  of  its  parents  ;  but  assuming  this,  the 
child's  room  should  be  arranged  after  an  ideal  of 
simple  beauty.  The  room  should  be  carefully 
selected  for  its  cheerfulness  and  sunniness  ;  a 
south  aspect  is  above  all  others  desirable.      The 


Infant  Life.  25 

walls  should  be  covered  with  soft,  delicate  colour, 
or  a  paper  of  good  design  above  a  serviceable 
dado  of  wood.  Walter  Crane's  paper  of  the 
Sleeping  Princess  is,  I  think,  quite  a  model  for 
a  nursery  paper.  The  sleeping  beauty  discerned 
by  careful  looking,  in  her  screen  of  leaves,  with 
her  attendants,  and  pet  dog  in  deep  repose, 
awaiting  the  fresh  stir  of  life  typified  in  the  prince 
who  is  parting  the  concealing  branches  of  her 
bower,  sometimes  hidden,  sometimes  revealed, 
must  offer  to  a  child  endless  occupation  and 
deliQ:ht.  In  some  of  the  illustrations  of  children's 
books,  designed  by  Walter  Crane  and  others, 
there  are  charming  suggestions  of  what  an  ideal 
child's  room  should  be.  A  seat  in  the  window,  a 
low  cupboard  to  which  children  can  have  access 
for  their  own  possessions,  may  be  surrounded 
with  associations  of  delight  which  last  a  lifetime. 
When  carpets  of  excellent  colour  and  design  are 
easily  procurable,  there  can  be  little  excuse  for 
putting  in  the  child's  room  a  gaudy  old-fashioned 
covering.  The  present  fashion  of  putting  a  car- 
pet in  the  middle  of  the  room  with  some  border 
round  it,  should  remain  permanent  for  a  nursery, 
as  it  renders  extreme  cleanliness  and  nicety  easy. 
But  if  the  border  be  of  stained  or  polished  wood, 
it  should  not  be  wide,  as  children  are  apt  to  slip 
on    such    margins,    and    may   strain    themselves. 


2  6    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  CJiildrcn. 

Indian  mattingf  miCTht  be  used  if  the  wood  were 
discarded.  Before  the  carefully  guarded  fire  a 
soft  rug  should  be  placed,  an  emblem  of  comfort 
for  the  little  one.  Another  rug  of  soft  material 
that  can  be  easily  cleaned  should  be  at  hand  for 
the  child  to  crawl  on,  and  lie  on  with  a  cushion. 
Besides  the  toys  and  occupations  of  the  child, 
the  other  furniture  should  be  chosen  with  reo-ard 
alone  to  the  needs  and  happiness  of  the  child  ; 
as  much  space  as  possible  should  be  kept,  and 
nothing  put  into  the  room  which  the  child  may 
not  handle  or  touch.  Ugly  forms  in  furniture, 
sharp  corners  and  edges,  against  which  the  tod- 
dling infant  may  fall,  should  be  absolutely 
avoided.  The  coal-box  should  be  kept  out  of 
the  room,  while  tables  made  to  the  height  of  tiny 
sitters  (such  as  are  used  in  Kindergartens),  and 
chairs  to  match  zvith  backs,  and  presently  modern 
school  desks,  adapted  to  the  age  of  the  child, 
should  be  found  in  all  good  nurseries.  Pictures, 
or  good  photographs  or  engravings,  should  hang 
on  the  walls  :  some  of  birds  and  animals,  which 
the  child  can  soon  understand,  and  some,  I  ven- 
ture to  suggest,  above  its  quick  comprehension,  a 
fine  face,  some  early  Italian  Madonna,  a  copy  of 
Holman  Hunt's  "  Christ  in  the  Temple,"  or  a  bit 
of  some  Greek  frieze,  about  which  the  child's 
thought  will  gradually  twine. 


Infant  Life.  27 

In  arranging  in  every  direction  for  the  right 
training  of  the  child,  it  is  important  that  all  the 
servants  of  the  household  should  be  persons 
capable,  at  least,  of  respecting  the  educational 
ideas  of  the  parents,  and  incapable  therefore  of 
falsehood  or  passion  towards  it,  or  of  rousing  its 
fear.  The  child  should  see  nothinof  but  goodness 
and  kindness  around  it.  Ruskin  has  said  lately  : 
"  All  education  to  beauty  is,  first,  in  the  beauty  of 
gentle  himian  faces  round  a  child  ;  secondly,  in 
the  fields,  fields  meaning  grass,  water,  beasts, 
flowers,  sky  ;  without  these  no  man  can  be  edu- 
cated humanly.  If  the  child  has  other  things 
right  round  it,  and  given  to  it — its  garden,  its  cat, 
and  its  window  to  the  skies  and  stars — in  time 
pictures  of  flowers,  and  beasts,  and  things,  in 
Heaven  and  heavenly  earth,  may  be  useful  to  it. 
But  see  first  that  its  realities  are  heavenly." 

And  in  pursuance  of  this  fine  teaching,  let  us 
be  careful  by  all  manner  of  means  not  to  trammel 
the  child  with  our  merely  conventional  modes  of 
thought.  It  is  perhaps  too  much  to  expect  that  we 
can  preserve  the  balance  of  its  judgment  wholly  free 
until  the  intellect  acquires  force  to  judge  justly,  but 
it  should  be  our  endeavour  not  to  impose  on  it  our 
prejudices,  our  conventional  customs,  our  class 
distinctions  ;  we  shall  do  it  a  serious  injury  if  we 
destroy  its  freedom  from  bias,  its  lowliness  of  heart. 


28    Notes  oil  the  Early  Training  of  Children, 


CHAPTER   III. 

NURSERY   MANAGEMENT. 

"The  most  important  part  of  education  is  right  training 
in  the  nursery." 

Plato's  Laws,  Book  I.  {/oweti). 

One  of  the  first  conditions  of  good  nursery  man- 
agement Is  to  make  the  child's  routine  of  duty 
pleasant  to  him.  Abundant  opportunities  will 
occur  later  on,  to  test  and  strengthen  his  virtue  ; 
at  first  establish  a  habit  of  goodness.  Take  care 
that  the  child  wakes  to  a  cheerful  day ;  do  not 
rouse  him  brusquely,  let  him  finish  out  his  sleep, 
speak  to  him  on  waking  cheerily,  associate  your 
coming  with  pleasant  words  and  tones,  remember 
how  soon  may  be  struck  the  key-note  to  a  Rosa- 
mund's "  Day  of  Misfortunes."  Have  the  bath 
and  dressing  things  ready  in  orderly  fashion  ;  un- 
readiness in  these  small  things  is  certainly  bad 
for  him  morally  as  well  as  physically.  Let  all 
your  movements  and  your  handling  be  gentle  and 
caressing.  -A  child  has  a  right  to  use  even  pas- 
sionate remonstrance  if  soap  is  smeared  into  his 
eyes,  or  his  skin  is  left  half  wet,  or  is  rasped  with 


Nursery  Management.  29 

a  hard  towel,  and  if  his  hair  is  combed  roughly  ; 
such  treatment  would  try  the  patience  of  an  adult, 
and  is  quite  enough  to  fill  a  child's  morning  with 
a  vague  sense  of  trouble. 

With  our  endeavour  to  make  the  small  duties 
of  the  day  pleasant  to  the  child,  we  must  simul- 
taneously create  a  sense  of  their  inevitableness. 
There  should  be  no  question  as  to  the  necessity 
of  those  things  we  consider  good  for  him.  We 
must  have  a  clear  idea  what  this  is,  and  this  should 
be  carried  out  without  debate,  unless  exceptional 
circumstances,  such  as  illness,  come  to  disturb 
the  daily  routine.  In  some  households  every 
action  of  the  child  is  allowdW  to  raise  discussion  : 
"  Oh,  must  I  go  out  ?"  "  Must  I  wash  my  hands  ?" 
"  I  don't  like  my  hair  brushed."  "  I  don't  want 
to  go  to  bed."  A  gentle,  loving  firmness  in  such 
matters  will  soon  make  the  youngest  child  accept 
the  routine  we  mark  out  for  it  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  there  will  be  no  crying  or  discontented 
remonstrance  about  each  act.  If  there  is,  we 
may  be  sure,  in  the  case  of  a  well-trained  child, 
there  is  something  wrong  with  its  physical  health, 
which  should  be  investigated  and  set  right  before 
the  routine  of  its  life  in  ordinary  health  is  resumed  ; 
for  there  is  nothing  to  which  human  nature  either 
in  young  or  old  more  cheerfully  submits  than  the 
inevitable. 


2,0    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

I  cannot  insist  too  strongly  upon  the  necessity 
of  refinejnent  in  all  dealings  with  the  child.  Even 
refined  mothers  and  good  nurses  are  too  prone  to 
disregard  the  personal  reserve  which  is  usually 
strong  in  the  children  of  educated  parents.  This 
feeling,  on  the  contrary,  should  be  carefully 
cherished,  and  trained  to  control  the  expression 
and  gestures  of  the  little  child.  I  am  far,  how- 
ever, from  wishing  to  make  it  prudish  ;  we  need 
not  lead  it  to  think  the  beauty  of  its  little  body 
something  disgraceful,  because  it  is  the  custom  in 
civilized  communities  to  wear  clothes  ;  but  it  is  right 
for  the  adults  surrounding  it,  and  for  the  little  one 
itself,  that  it  should  be  trained  in  all  ways  of  per- 
sonal decorum  and  perfect  modesty.  The  same 
refined  watchfulness  should  be  exercised  over  the 
child's  eating.  When  it  begins  to  take  food,  it 
should  be  taught  to  wait  patiently  for  its  bread 
and  milk  to  get  cool ;  it  should  expect  it  by  slow 
mouthfuls,  and  pause  between  them.  All  eager- 
ness and  greediness  should  be  checked  by  the 
mother,  who  sees  that  the  little  one  has  the  food 
proper  for  it,  nicely  prepared,  while  gentle  words 
present  pleasant  images  to  its  mind.  The  best 
lesson  in  manners  is  to  banish  all  nursery  meals 
as  soon  as  possible.  As  soon  as  the  child  can  sit 
up  to  the  table  of  its  parents  in  its  high  chair,  it 
should    take   its   food  with  them,   become  accus- 


N^irsery  Management.  31 

tomed  to  see  delicacies  it  is  not  to  have,  or  even 
ask  for,  and  behave  with  the  refined  quietness 
and  reserve  of  those  about  it.  It  is  true,  the 
mother  will  be  more  taxed  by  the  presence  of  her 
child  at  meals,  for  she  cannot  relax  her  watchful- 
ness while  it  is  very  young.  I  have  seen  mothers, 
at  table  with  their  children,  attending  to  every- 
thing but  them,  and  the  little  ones  behaving  in  con- 
sequence more  like  a  set  of  young  puppies  than 
children  of  decent  parents.  The  mother  has  to 
contrive  to  carry  on  many  threads  of  life  together, 
but  the  consequent  strain  will  be  repaid  in  this 
direction  by  the  good  manners  of  her  children. 

There  are  few  thingfs  more  deofradinsf  to  the 
moral  nature  than  fear,  "  the  expectation  of 
pain."  Healthy  being  is  Impossible  under  its  in- 
fluence, and  one  of  our  earliest  cares  must  be  to 
prevent  Its  even  entering  the  atmosphere  of  a 
child's  life.  Timidity  and  courage  are  alike  easily 
developed,  and  It  is  the  business  of  parents  to 
foster  the  latter  while  avoiding  In  every  way  to 
call  the  former  into  growth.  It  Is  perhaps  not  too 
much  to  say,  that  upon  the  Impressions  and  influ- 
ences of  the  first  seven  years  of  our  life  depends 
our  possession  of  the  virtue  of  courage,  or  our 
servitude  to  the  demon  of  fear. 

Man,  both  In  his  early  and  later  years,  has  a 
dread   of  the  unknown ;  to  an  Infant  everything 


3  2    Notes  on  the  EaiHy  Traim?ig  of  Children. 

is  unknown,  and  it  behoves  its  parents  to  watch 
that  no  new  experience  should  come  to  it  with 
fear.  A  sudden  sense  of  helplessness  in  solitude 
may  be  dangerously  terrifying-  to  a  baby.  The 
dark  is  terrible,  unless  always  associated  with  a 
sense  of  security  and  the  mother's  encircling  arms. 
Children  should  never  be  put  to  sleep  in  a  room 
without  some  shaded  light,  and  the  nurse  within 
hearing  of  the  slightest  noise.  If  not  thus  quickly 
reassured  on  waking  by  light  and  attendance,  they 
may  suffer  agonies  of  fear  long  before  they  can 
explain  what  they  are  feeling.  No  children,  how- 
ever young,  should  ever  hear  disagreeable  or 
frightening  things  said  in  their  presence.  Ghost 
and  goblin  stories,  murders  or  terrible  descriptions 
of  every  kind,  such  as  those  in  "  Blue  Beard  "  and 
the  "  Forty  Thieves,"  ugly,  uncanny,  mysterious, 
or  painful  pictures,  everything  capable  of  exciting 
fear,  must  be  avoided  by  the  entire  household. 
An  imaginative  child  will  contrive  to  build  an 
image  of  dread  on  the  smallest  mysterious  sug- 
gestion, which  may  haunt  him  for  years.  I  have 
known  a  very  young  child  lie  awake  night  after 
night  in  agony  after  hearing  two  nurse- maids 
speak  of  a  murder  ;  the  same  child  had  a  terror 
she  never  forgot  from  a  ghost  story  told  her  by 
an  indiscreet  governess.  Cases  of  other  children 
are  known  to  me,   who,   after  having  been  kept 


Nursery  Management.  33 

from  all  fear  in  their  own  home,  heard  ghost 
stories  told,  for  the  first  time,  while  visiting,  and 
g-rew  to  dread,  all  through  the  day,  the  approach 
of  bed-time,  and  the  dark  lonely  bedroom  in  which 
they  lay  awake.  Many  people  who  look  back  to 
similar  experiences  in  their  childhood,  hold  that 
some  such  "  hardening  "  process  is  inevitable  and 
salutary.  The  battle  between  unreasoning  instinc- 
tive fear  and  reasonable  courage  must  indeed 
come  in  every  young  life  ;  but  we  should  strive 
that  it  should  come  when  the  faculty  of  reason  and 
the  virtue  of  courage  are  cultivated  into  strength, 
not  when,  as  in  early  childhood,  the  instincts  are 
uncontrolled  by  any  higher  faculty,  and  unchecked 
by  any  experience  of  fact. 

Equally  vicious  but  more  visible  in  result,  is  the 
influence  of  fear  inspired  by  threatened  punish- 
ments, cross  words,  and  angry  gestures.  We  all 
unhappily  know  the  leaden  look,  the  timid  eyes, 
of  children  subject  to  these  evils.  I  have  known 
a  sensitive  child  dread  scolding  and  impatient 
tones,  even  when  not  addressed  to  herself,  with  a 
shrinking  which  almost  made  her  a  coward  for 
life.  But  the  question  of  the  punishment  of 
children  has  not  its  place  here  ;  for  the  moment 
we  have  not  to  deal  with  faults  already  engendered, 
and  in  need  of  correction,  but  with  the  training 
of  the  first  blameless  years  of  infancy  ;  and  in  this 

c 


34    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children, 

training  the  perpetual  sunshine  of  the  moral 
atmosphere,  the  light  and  warmth  of  tenderness 
and  love,  is  of  all  things  first  needful. 

I  have  said  that  a  child  should  be  kept  in 
ignorance  of  fear  until  it  is  old  enough  to  learn 
to  be  brave  ;  but  the  experience  and  the  lesson  in 
courage  may  come  unawares  with  some  of  the 
first  impressions  of  the  external  world.  I  saw  the 
other  day  a  baby  of  ten  months  old  touch  with 
her  tiny  finger  some  fur  on  a  dress.  It  was  a 
new  sensation  to  her,  and  she  shrank  from  it  with 
a  comical  horror,  rubbing  her  little  hand  on  her 
dress  as  though  to  get  rid  of  some  visible  im- 
purity. But  the  habit  of  examining  new  things  was 
strong  in  her,  and  she  presently  touched  the  fur 
aeain  and  ao^ain,  at  first  with  a  recurrence  of  her 
horror,  then  with  diminishing  dislike.  The  un- 
known became  familiar  to  her,  and  gradually  she 
came  to  touch  the  passive  "  pussy  "  with  almost 
likine.  The  same  child  learnt  to  stroke  a  gentle 
spaniel  with  complacency  and  love. 

Patient  endurance  should  be  trained  in  the 
youngest  children  by  encouraging  them  to  bear 
pain  well  and  bravely.  If  the  infant  tumbles 
down,  or  knocks  itself  against  a  sharp  Q.(\gQ, 
sympathize  with  it,  distract  its  attention,  but  do 
not  make  a  fuss  over  it,  do  not  let  the  child 
exaggerate  its  pain.     A  few  encouraging  words,  a 


Nursery  Management.  35 

kiss,  will  make  it  proud  to  bear  its  trial  bravely ; 
and  with  the  approval  of  its  parents  it  will  grow 
even  Spartan  in  its  power  of  endurance.  I  have 
known  little  children  beg  for  the  fearful  pleasure 
of  being  put  on  the  narrow  wainscot  ledge  of  the 
room,  to  learn  to  balance  themselves,  their  father 
standing  near  to  catch  them  in  his  arms  when 
the  balance  could  no  longer  be  kept.  It  is  im- 
portant in  this,  as  in  all  training,  that  children 
should  see  the  example  of  courage  around  them. 
If  their  mother  bears  illness,  and  their  father  sharp 
pain,  without  a  murmur,  they  will  feel  a  respect 
for  endurance  which  will  lead  them  to  imitate  it. 
I  have  known  children  sustained  by  such  courage, 
who,  in  times  of  childish  illness,  took  medicine 
without  a  word  of  protest,  and  wrung  their  mother's 
heart,  while  they  rejoiced  it,  by  the  perfect  patience 
and  self-containment  with  which  they  endured 
pain  and  restlessness.  Stories  of  heroism  touch 
the  imagination  of  children,  and  awaken  in  them 
a  desire  to  make  experiments  in  their  own  courage  ; 
and  these  experiments  form  a  tradition  from  which 
a  brave  child  will  be  ashamed  to  turn.  A  little 
girl,  upon  hearing  some  tales  of  the  voluntary 
endurance  of  pain  by  some  Huguenot  ancestors, 
emulated  their  example  by  dropping  lighted 
sealing-wax  upon  her  own  hand  behind  a  screen 
which  hid  all  but  her  face  from  her  sisters.     She 


36    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children, 

succeeded  in  showing  that  she  could  bear  pain 
without  the  least  sign  of  betrayal,  and  she  carries 
the  scar  to  this  day.  Another  little  girl  of  six 
was  watching  a  swarm  of  bees  by  the  side  of  her 
father.  A  bee  flew  round  and  round  her,  and  at 
last  settled  on  her  face.  "  Be  quiet,  H.,"  her 
father  said,  "  don't  stir,  and  then  it  won't  hurt 
you."  So  she  remained  perfectly  still  for  some 
seconds  until  the  bee  flew  away,  remarking,  "  that 
if  she  were  so  quiet  the  bee  would  think  she  was 
a  post."  I  remember  an  old  gentleman  who  had 
come  of  a  race  of  courageous  ancestors,  telling 
me,  that  the  one  fear  of  his  boyhood  was  the  mill- 
stream  that  ran  near  his  father's  house.  He 
longed  to  plunge  into  it,  as  into  other  streams, 
but  his  dread  of  it  withheld  him.  At  last, 
ashamed  of  his  fear,  he  determined  to  conquer  it 
once  for  all,  and  one  cold  morning,  when  the  light 
was  just  coming,  he  got  up  from  his  bed,  ran 
hastily  to  the  stream,  and  plunged  in  ;  he  no 
longer  acknowlcdcrcd  a  fear.  It  was  consistent 
with  this  act  of  bravery,  that  the  after-life  of  this 
boy  was  remarkable  for  its  moral  courage. 

I  now  come  to  the  consideration  of  one  of  the 
fundamental  conditions  of  nursery,  as  well  as  of  all 
other  management — the  requiring  and  giving  of 
obedience.  One  often  hears  great  lamentations  over 
the  difficulty  of  getting  obedience  from  children. 


Nursery  Management.  37 

A  mother  will  say,  without  apparent  shame,  "  Oh ! 
I  can't  manage  him,  he  is  beyond  me  ! "  or  one 
hears  a  child  flatly  refusing  to  go  to  bed,  and 
carried  screaming  and  kicking  upstairs.  I  am 
strongly  tempted  to  say  that  obedience  will  always 
be  given  to  those  worthy  of  exacting  it ;  or  rather, 
that  it  is  orlven  to  reasonable  claims  enforced  in  a 
right  way.  Parents  must  take  care  that  they  are 
fit  to  rule,  that  their  government  is  good  for  the 
child,  good  for  the  home  ;  their  personal  influence 
should  then  be  strong  enough  to  obtain  what 
they  wish  with  their  children.  They  must  not 
be  despots,  demanding  acquiescence  in  arbitrary 
decrees  made  for  their  pleasure  merely  ;  the  child 
must  feci  that  every  wish  of  his  parents  is  in 
harmony  with  their  consistent  and  never-failing 
endeavour  to  secure  his  welfare.  I  think  even 
an  infant  feels  this,  and  that  its  mother,  in  grant- 
ing or  denying  it  the  gratification  it  cries  for,  is 
acting  in  obedience  to  a  higher  law  than  caprice. 
Any  infringement  of  this  law  is  soon  understood 
to  be  not  a  matter  of  question,  it  is  impossible. 
But  a  mother  may  sympathize  with  the  pain  her 
denial  causes,  and  she  should  soften  the  refusal 
by  her  loving  words  and  gentle  manner.  Thus 
the  child  grows  to  recognize,  day  by  day,  the  law 
by  which  she  and  he  are  governed,  and  the  habit 
of  obedience  is  begun. 


38    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

We  still  unhappily  hear  of  "  breaking"  a  child's 
will,  but  I  hope  the  expression  is  only  used  by 
very  narrow  or  very  ignorant  persons.  For  it  is 
to  the  will,  the  outcome,  the  energy  of  the  whole 
nature,  that  we  must  look  for  all  that  is  strong 
and  valuable  in  the  future  life  of  the  young  crea- 
ture ;  it  is  criminal  to  speak  lightly  of  "  breaking  " 
such  a  force.  What  we  have  to  do  with  it  in 
early  training  is  to  direct  it  to  desire  what  it  ought 
to  desire,  to  strengthen,  and  to  develop  it.  Let 
us  consider  the  way  of  doing  this  in  very  young 
children.  Take  a  time  when  the  mother  and  the 
child  wish  different  things,  say  the  hour  for  going 
out,  and  he  is  intent  in  watching  the  kitten,  or 
is  interested  with  a  new  toy  ;  he  objects  to  be 
dressed  for  his  walk.  Do  not  hastily  snatch  away 
the  plaything,  or  disturb  his  rapt  attention  ;  turn 
his  thoughts  to  something  different,  something 
which  interests  him  in  another  direction,  speak 
gently  in  an  animated,  loving  way,  remind  him 
of  the  pleasures  he  will  find  in  his  walk  ;  and  the 
proof  of  your  management  being  wise  will  be  in 
the  child's  will  acting  with  yours.  Again,  if  a 
child  in  the  drawing-room  discovers  an  attractive 
employment  in  pulling  threads  oft  a  frin^ic,  or 
tries  to  draw  towards  him  some  bright  china  on  a 
shelf  or  low  table,  do  not  hastily  take  him  up,  and 
put  him  down  at  the  other  end  of  the  room,  call- 


Nursery  Managejueiit.  39 

ing  him  naughty  and  "  tiresome."  Do  not  put 
physical  obstacles  of  any  kind  in  the  way  of 
his  returning  to  his  destructive  amusement ;  but 
gently  shake  your  head,  and  say,  "  No,  no !  "  And 
immediately  give  him  his  own  toys  to  occupy  him. 
Have  blocks  at  hand,  or  let  him  play  with  a  paper- 
knife,  or  somethmor  new  to  him  which  he  can- 
not  hurt ;  make,  in  short,  his  obedience  to  your 
rule  pleasant  and  unconscious,  and  you  will  be 
strengthening  a  habit  which  will  assert  its  power 
when  obedience  cannot  be  made  agreeable. 

If  you  do  not  succeed  in  dealing  with  the 
child's  wilfulness  at  any  one  time,  do  not  be  afraid 
to  acknowledge  you  were  less  wise  than  the 
occasion  demanded  ;  another  time  you  will  do 
better.  Trainino;  children  is  so  crreat  an  art,  that 
with  every  desire  and  effort  to  get  proficient  in 
it,  some  mistakes  are  almost  unavoidable,  and 
you  must  not  be  unduly  discouraged  by  them.  I 
repeat — make  the  daily  routine  of  the  child's  life 
pleasant  to  him,  its  duties  inevitable,  and  you 
will  find  obedience  will  follow  your  just  demand 
of  it. 

With  children  whose  trainlno-  has  not  becnin  in 
the  cradle,  respect  certain  considerations  in  the 
exaction  of  obedience.  Do  not  make  a  multitude 
of  laws.  With  children,  as  with  adults,  legis- 
lation, unless  absolutely  necessary,  is  pernicious 


40    Notes  on  the  Early  Ti'aitMig  of  CJiildrcn. 

Do  not  command  what  you  have  not  the  power 
to  enforce  :  in  a  struoQ-le  of  wills  the  adult  is 
always  liable  to  defeat.  A  child,  as  the  weaker, 
can  certainly  be  turned  out  of  a  room,  or  locked 
into  a  closet,  but  you  cannot  control  its  muscles 
or  its  inclinations  by  force  ;  unless  you  can  touch 
the  motive  power  within  it  you  are  actually 
powerless.  Almost  before  it  can  understand  the 
full  force  of  what  you  say,  explain  to  the  child 
the  reason  of  the  obedience  you  claim.  The 
youngest  healthy  child  is  a  reasoning"  creature, 
and  if  he  sees  why  a  thing  is  or  is  not  to  be 
done,  his  obedience  will  not  only  be  more  readily 
given,  but  he  will  gradually  gather  the  faith  that 
those  about  him  are  guided  in  their  claims  upon 
him  by  a  loving  desire  for  his  welfare.  In  saying 
this  I  do  not  forget  that  the  finest  obedience  is 
given  in  faith,  supported  only  by  the  authority 
claiming  it ;  but  the  reason  is  a  valuable  aid 
in  training  towards  the  unreasoning,  soldier-like 
form  of  the  virtue.  Do  not  ask  of  a  child  tasks 
beyond  his  strength.  Remember  his  weakness, 
and  that  every  power  and  virtue  in  him  is  neces- 
sarily feeble  :  if  you  do  not  apportion  his  trial  to 
his  powers,  active  or  passive,  you  deserve  defeat, 
and  run  the  risk  of 'injuring  the  growing  goodness 
of  the  little  one.  When  it  is  hard  for  him  to 
give  up  his  will  to  yours,  encourage  him  by  your 


Nursery  Managemeiit.  41 

loving  approbation  ;  let  him  feel  the  sunlight  of 
your  love  in  his  struggle  to  do  right. 

There  is  another,  and  too  much  neglected,  in- 
fluence in  the  mana2;;ement  of  children  which 
we  should  not  fail  to  exercise — keeping  faith  with 
them.  They  ought  to  be  able  to  have  entire  re- 
liance upon  our  word.  I  need  scarcely  say  there- 
fore, it  is  eminently  necessary  we  should  promise 
nothing  rashly,  either  of  good  or  evil.  We  hear 
a  child  confide  to  his  companion,  "  Mamma  said 
she'd  punish  me  if  I  slid  down  those  banisters, 
but  I'm  sure  she  won't,  you  know."  Or,  to 
encourao^e  a  child's  effort  at  self-fjovernment  in 
some  direction,  the  mother  promises  to  carry  him 
up  to  bed ;  and  we  hear,  "  Mother  promised  to 
carry  me  up  to  bed  her  own  self,  but  she  has 
forgotten  and  gone  out ! "  Adults  are  quick 
to  acknowledge  the  necessity  of  steadfastness  in 
government  for  themselves ;  it  should  not  be 
difficult  to  recognize  the  same  necessity  in  the 
management  of  children. 

There  is  another  form  of  keeping  faith  with 
children  which  will  present  itself  to  the  educator. 
Their  minds,  as  we  have  seen,  soon  become 
occupied  with  some  of  the  mysteries  which  sur- 
round them — death,  immortality,  but  especially 
their  own  origin,  moves  their  wonder  and  curiosity. 
And  in  answering  their  questions,  we  have  very 


42    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

often  to  face  the  impossibility  of  telling  them 
all  the  truth  about  things  unfitting  their  age, 
while  it  is  incumbent  upon  us  to  guard  the  trust 
existing  between  them  and  us,  and  equally  ne- 
cessary that  we  should  respond  to  their  desire 
for  information  in  such  a  manner  as  to  set  their 
minds  at  rest.  The  ordinary  way  of  dealing 
with  these  difficulties  is  either  to  say,  "  Little 
children  must  not  ask  questions  ; "  or  to  try  the 
effect  of  evasion,  "  The  storks  bring  little  chil- 
dren ;  "  or,  "  Your  baby  sister  was  found  in  the 
cabbage  bed ; "  or,  "  The  doctor  brought  baby 
in  the  night."  To  either  mode  of  answering, 
the  objections  are  obvious.  To  a  child  whose 
questions  are  habitually  encouraged,  the  first  is 
absurd,  while  evasion  will  scarcely  satisfy  intelli- 
gent children.  Loyal  to  the  faith  existing  be- 
tween parents  and  children,  I  think  it  is  better  to 
explain  that  there  are  many  things  wc  will  gladly 
tell  the  child  when  he  is  older,  but  that  we  must 
both  wait  for  tliat  time.  Or  we  may  make  him 
feel  that  the  new  baby  is  a  heavenly  gift  to  his 
mother,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  arrest  further 
questioning.  But  different  children  require  varied 
treatment ;  I  have  known  one  sweet  mother  who, 
with  a  directness  and  courage  peculiarly  beauti- 
ful, gave  her  child,  in  answer  to  his  questions  on 
this   subject,   something  of  the    facts    in    simple, 


Nursery  Management.  43 

grave  words,  impressing  him  at  the  same  time 
that  it  was  a  matter  sacred  to  him  and  to  her, 
and  not  to  be  hghtly  spoken  of.  Her  confidence 
was  rightly  taken  and  justified.  Children  have  a 
wonderful  instinctive  tact  which  may  be  relied  on 
to  check  questions  on  such  subjects,  if  once  we 
communicate  to  them  the  serious  reverence  with 
which  we  ourselves  recjard  them. 

We  must  habitually  train  ourselves  to  remem- 
ber that  our  intercourse  with  children  must  always 
be  guided  and  controlled  by  a  sense  of  our 
educational  responsibility  to  them  :  they  are  so 
completely  in  our  power,  so  unable  to  alter  in- 
fluences affecting  themselves.  Grown-up  people 
are  too  apt  to  ignore  the  presence  of  children. 
They  are  perhaps  full  of  their  own  interests  and 
wishes,  and  forget  that  children  are  not  bits  of 
inanim.ate  furniture.  I  need  hardly  point  out  the 
many  injurious  ways  in  which  this  forgetfulness 
acts.  The  acute  little  listeners  hear  perhaps  in- 
formation and  gossip,  harmless  enough  in  itself, 
but  not  fitting  their  age  or  discretion  ;  or  things 
are  said  in  their  presence  which  are  destructive 
of  their  reverence  for  others,  or  of  their  freedom 
from  conventional  prejudices.  This  is  irreparable 
mischief.  In  other  instances  the  results  are  less 
morally  harmful,  but  more  embarrassing.  "  Oh, 
Mr.  S."  a  child   may   say,  *'  I   heard  mother  say 


44    Notes  on  the  Eai'ly  Training  of  Children, 

you  was  going  to  marry  with  Miss  A.  ; "  or,  "  I 
heard  Uncle  R.  say  that  Mr.  D.  was  an  old  cur- 
mudgeon." And  it  is  whispered  (also  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  children)  "  that  little  pitchers  have 
lone  ears,"  and  we  must  beware  of  "  les  enfants 
terribles."  I  have  known  a  sensitive  child  suffer 
a  small  martyrdom  from  having  subjects  unfit  for 
her  to  hear  discussed  in  her  presence,  both  her 
conscience  and  her  sense  of  refinement  being 
outraged.  Children  of  even  four  or  five  years 
old  are  fairly  reasonable  creatures,  and  are  cer- 
tainly full  of  sensitive  feeling.  Their  self-poise 
and  self-respect  are  grievously  wounded  by  their 
very  existence  being  ignored.  You  hear  a  not 
unkind  mother  say  of  the  child  at  her  knee,  "  Oh, 
don't  ask  what  is  the  matter ;  Mary  is  sadly  out 
of  temper  to-day ;  "  or,  "  She  has  been  sulking 
ever  since  the  morning."  Now,  if  we  try  to  under- 
stand either  state  of  feeling  in  the  child,  we  may 
discover  it  is  suffering  physically,  or  has  been 
jarred  mentally  by  some  stupidity  on  the  part  of 
its  nurse,  or  is  smarting  under  treatment  it  be- 
lieves to  be  unjust.  It  wounds  it  deeply  to  have 
mis-statements  made  concerning  it  to  indifferent 
visitors,  or  to  feel  that  the  grown-up  world  about 
it  has  no  comprehension  of  it,  and  is  full  of 
injustice. 

Again,  granting  that  a   child   is  sulky  and   ill- 


Nursery  Management,  45 

humoured,  we  are  bound  to  shield  his  dignity,  his 
reputation,  so  to  speak,  from  indifferent  visitors ; 
and  he  has  a  right  to  feel  hurt  and  angry  if  we 
fail  in  this  consideration.  Moreover,  our  influ- 
ence is  seriously  impaired  if  the  child  finds  that 
we  can  speak  lightly  to  others  of  some  fault 
which  to  him  we  have  made  of  grave  importance. 
M.  Taine,  in  a  sketch  of  Prosper  Merimee,  tells 
how  once  when,  as  a  boy,  he  was  severely  scolded 
for  some  fault,  and  had  been  sent  out  of  the 
room  in  tears  and  deep  dejection,  he  heard 
through  the  door,  a  laugh,  and  some  one  saying, 
•'  The  poor  child  I  how  angry  he  thinks  us  !  " 
"  L'idee  d'etre  dupe  le  revolta,"  adds  M.  Taine  ; 
and  he  refers  Merimee's  self-repression,  his  suspi- 
cion of  confidence  in  after-life,  to  such  treatment. 
"  To  act  and  write  as  though  always  in  presence 
of  an  indifferent  or  mocking  spectator,  or  be 
himself  that  spectator,"  was  a  marked  trait  of  his 
character. 


46    Notes  on  the  Ea7'ly  Training  of  Childi^en, 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    EMPLOYMENT    AND    OCCUPATION    OF 
CHILDREN. 

"  Behold  the  child  among  his  new-born  blisses, 
A  six  years'  darling  of  a  pigmy  size  ! 

"  Delight  and  liberty,  the  simple  creed 
Of  childhood,  whether  busy  or  at  rest." 

Words7vorth. 

"  I  deem  it  wise 
To  make  him  Nature's  playmate." 

Coleridge. 

"  Anatomists  tell  us,"  says  Professor  Bain  in  his 
"  Education  as  a  Science,"  "  that  the  brain  grows 
with  great  rapidity  up  to  seven  years  of  age  ;  it 
then  attains  an  average  weight  of  forty  ounces  (in 
the  male).  The  increase  is  much  slower  between 
seven  and  fourteen,  when  it  attains  forty-five 
ounces;  still  slower  from  fourteen  to  twenty,  when 
it  is  very  near  its  greatest  size.  Consequently,  of 
the  more  difficult  intellectual  exercises,  some  that 
would  be  impossible  at  five  or  six,  are  easy  at 
eight,   through   the  fact  of  brain  growth  alone." 


Employment  and  Occupation  of  CJiildren.     47 

This  Important  fact  of  rapid  brain  growth  under- 
lies the  theory  of  educationaHsts  concerning  the 
time  when  children  should  begin  to  receive  serious 
and  systematic  instruction — should  begin  their 
"  book-learning."  But  like  many  other  great  facts, 
it  yet  affects  too  little  the  practical  mode  of 
education.  It  is  true  we  are  shocked  to  know 
that  Swift  could  read  a  chapter  of  the  Bible 
at  three  years  old,  and  that  John  Stuart  Mill 
learned  Greek  at  the  same  age  ;  but  there  still 
obtains  a  great  deal  too  much  anxiety,  at  home 
and  at  school,  to  press  children  on  to  learn  from 
books,  and  very  little  apparent  content  with  the 
period  of  fruitful  idleness  that  every  child  should 
enjoy.  The  fact  that  Professor  Bain  thus  men- 
tions, would  seem  meant  to  teach  us,  that  we 
must  watch  with  the  fjreatest  care  external  mani- 
festations  of  the  development  of  the  brain ;  that 
we  must  avoid  stimulatinor  a  orrowmof  intellio-ence; 
and,  content  to  let  it  grow  after  its  own  fashion, 
hesitate  to  press  upon  it  our  means  of  develop- 
ment. 

Guided  by  these  fundamental  rules,  we  shall 
come  to  recognize  these  first  years  as  a  time 
above  all  valuable  in  the  child's  education.  It  is 
a  time  given  him  to  learn  directly  from  objects, 
instead  of  at  second  hand  from  books  ;  a  time  of 
practice  for  the  senses,  when  through  the  concrete 


48    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

the  child  arrives  at  ideas  of  the  abstract ;  when  he 
is,  in  fact,  learning  after  his  own  fashion  to  spell  out 
the  Universe,  and  discovering,  bit  by  bit,  his  rela- 
tion to  the  great  system  of  things.  Our  parental 
care  can  assist  the  child  to  learn  these  first  grreat 
lessons  :  how  can  we  dare  to  mar  them  ? 

This,  then,  is  the  task  set  before  us  :  to  see  that 
the  infant  is  supplied  with  material  for  its  obser- 
vation, to  help  its  experiments  upon  this  material 
when  help  is  needed,  and  to  secure  free  exercise 
for  its  activity  in  all  possible  directions. 

During  the  first  two  years  of  his  life  the  child 
takes  matters  pretty  much  into  his  own  hands. 
He  is  learning  nearly  all  through  his  waking  hours, 
but  he  learns  almost  independently  of  us.  The 
light,  and  colour,  and  sounds  which  attracted  his 
earliest  observation,  continue  to  be  his  study  as  he 
grows  older ;  indeed  everything  which  his  senses 
discover  awakens  his  wonder,  becomes  food  for 
his  experiments  repeated  over  and  over  again,  and 
the  results  are  laid  up  in  the  storehouse  of  his 
memory.  The  use  of  every  muscle,  and  combi- 
nation of  muscles,  has  to  become  familiar,  and 
then  perfect,  by  constant  repetition ;  he  first 
grasps  the  finger  extended  to  him,  then  he  draws 
the  object  grasped  to  his  mouth,  but  he  has  to 
learn,  through  many  mistakes,  the  distances  that 
lie  between  his  hand,  or  his  mouth,  and  surround- 


Eniployme7tt  and  Occupation  of  Children.    49 

ing  objects.  When  he  first  tries  to  crawl,  to 
stand,  or  to  walk,  when  he  begins  to  make  articu- 
late sounds,  his  activity  is  again  increased,  and 
his  days  are  full  of  the  new  accomplishments.  We 
have  to  do  little  more  than  to  encourage  his  self- 
sought  lessons  indoors,  and  out  of  doors,  to  learn, 
as  Dr.  Abbott^  wisely  warns  us,  not  to  distract 
his  observation  by  a  too  rapid  change  of  objects, 
and  to  be  ready  with  tender  patience  to  carry  him 
again  and  again  to  one  spot  or  another,  to  let  him 
handle,  or  smell,  or  hear  the  same  thing  over  and 
over  again.  The  other  day  I  showed  a  baby  of 
eleven  months  a  vase  full  of  chrysanthemums  of 
varied  colours.  The  sight  was  so  full  of  interest 
to  her  it  occupied  her  delighted  attention  for 
nearly  an  hour.  She  watched  the  flowers  solemn- 
ly ;  then  I  lifted  the  vase  close  to  her  little  face, 
and  bade  her  smell  them.  She  wished  to  grasp 
one  of  them,  but  I  showed  her  how  to  touch  one 
and  another  lovely  disc  of  colour  with  her  tiny 
finger  without  harming  it.  We  put  the  vase  in 
its  place  again,  but  once  more  she  wished  to  have 
the  flowers  near  to  her ;  once  more  the  examina- 
tion of  them  went  on ;  again  her  sight,  and  smell, 
and  touch  went  through  their  pretty  exercise,  and 
her  sweet  attention  was  given  with  a  grave,  pleased 
happiness.  It  was  a  typical  example  of  a  child's 
1  "  Hints  on  Home  Teaching." 

D 


50    Notes  oil  the  Early  Training  of  Children^ 

undisturbed,  but  assisted,  learning  from  the  objects 
around  it. 

When  the  child  seems  to  demand  fresh  material 
for  his  activity,  we  must  be  guided  by  the  interest 
he  shows  in  what  we  present  to  him,  and  furnish 
him  with  that  which  seems  next  in  the  order 
demanded  by  his  natural  development.  Size, 
form,  number,  weight,  spaces,  will  probably  next 
attract  his  curiosity,  and  lead  him  to  comparison. 
Pictures,  particularly  those  in  colour  prepared  by 
the  good  artists  who  have  taken  this  department 
of  education  into  their  hands,  Walter  Crane,  the 
Caldecotts,  Kate  Greenaway,  show  the  child  in 
another  form,  the  objects  which  are  his  alphabet, 
and  he  listens  with  delitrht  to  the  stories  we  tell 
about  the  cats  and  dogs,  the  trees  and  children, 
in  the  favourite  books.  His  sympathy  is  awakened, 
while  his  eyes  are  instructed  and  charmed. 

But  very  soon  the  little  one  will  demand  more 
of  us  ;  observation,  however  fascinating,  will  not 
alone  satisfy  him  ;  he  must  himself  be  busy.  Toys 
and  games  become  his  serious  occupation.  With 
perhaps  an  inherited  sense  of  the  dignity  of  labour, 
he  begins  to  foreshadow  the  employment  of  his 
later  years  ;  his  imagination  is  impressed  by  the 
work  of  the  grown-up  world,  and  he  invents 
mimic  imitation  of  it.  Supply  a  boy  with  wooden 
bricks,   and   he  will    build   towers,   and    bridges. 


Employment  and  OcciLpaiion  of  Children.     5 1 

farm-buildings,  and  railways.  Give  him  a  Noah's 
ark,  and  he  will  arrange  a  stock-farm,  or 
Zoological  Gardens  ;  a  cart,  and  he  becomes  the 
carrier,  or  the  miller.  With  a  doll,  the  girl 
simulates  the  mother's  labour  of  love  ;  she  car- 
ries it  in  her  arms,  she  rocks  and  sings  to  it, 
presently  she  will  wash  and  sew  for  it ;  no 
trouble  is  too  much  for  her.  Give  a  child 
a  garden,  and  though  he  may  first  begin  by 
pulling  up  the  plants  to  see  if  they  are  growing, 
he  will  presently  become  a  landscape  or  market 
gardener.  Children  will  find  and  make  for  them- 
selves in  games  an  infinite  variety  of  employment 
if  we  leave  them  to  themselves  with  constant 
regard  to  their  spontaneous  activity. 

And  training  in  all  directions  should  go  on 
with  new  activities.  It  costs  a  child  less  effort, 
perhaps,  to  destroy  than  to  preserve  or  construct. 
The  baby  is  tired  of  its  pictures,  and  throws  them 
hastily  away,  creasing  or  tearing  the  pages, 
perhaps.  It  lies  with  us  to  smooth  the  rumpled 
paper,  to  put  away  the  book  for  another  time,  with 
a  playful  word,  to  show  the  little  one  its  mother's 
love  for  useful  or  beautiful  things.  The  blocks 
that  have  been  used  in  the  creation  of  homesteads 
and  railways  are  scattered  over  the  floor,  a  new 
interest  has  come,  and  with  a  child's  natural  want 
of  foresight,  the  toys  so  cherished  a  few  moments 


5  2    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children, 

before,  are  now  only  troublesome,  and  to  be  got 
rid  of  at  any  cost.  The  mother  must  remind  him 
that  he  will  need  his  darlino"  bricks  ao^ain,  and  she 
will  lovingly  encourage  him  to  bravery  and  the 
effort  to  put  them  back  in  their  box,  helping  him 
the  while.  Or  the  little  one,  from  perhaps  some 
physical  cause,  is  restless,  and  bemoans  himself. 
"  I  am  tired  of  playing  at  this."  "  What  shall  I 
do  now  ?  "  or,  "  I  want  something  to  do,  mummie." 
Kneeling  on  the  floor  beside  him,  the  mother  can 
re-awaken  his  flagging  pleasure  in  his  game,  can 
rouse  his  imagination  about  it,  direct  it  with  fresh 
interest.  The  cart  can  be  travelling  to  and  from 
a  new  place,  or  it  can  become,  in  the  wonderful 
colour  of  a  child's  fancy,  the  instrument  of  another 
merchant.  Presently,  when  the  effort  has  been 
made,  the  mother,  if  she  be  wise,  will  avoid  strain- 
ing the  patience  too  far,  and  will  herself  suggest 
some  fresh  game. 

Self-dependence,  patience,  perseverance,  steady 
effort  to  understand  a  thing,  to  get  the  best  out  of 
it,  determination  to  overcome  difficulties,  should 
be  first  learned  by  children  in  their  play,  when 
they  become  old  enough  to  make  conscious  effort ; 
and  these  beginnings  of  character  should  gain  in 
power  every  day. 

In  the  Kindergarten,  we  have  a  system  which 
recognizes   the  necessity  of  activity  in  little  chil- 


Employment  and  Ocaipation  of  Children.     53 

dren,  and  formulates  their  occupations ;  and  when 
nurses  are  trained  for  their  business,  and  have  at 
command  some  of  Froebel's  wise  and  beautiful 
ideas,  the  life  of  tiny  children  will,  doubtless, 
gain  enormously  in  intelligence  and  happiness. 
The  ideas  conveyed  in  concrete  form,  the  gentle 
leading  from  one  mental  step  to  another,  the  asso- 
ciation of  children  in  games  and  occupations,  are 
all  delightful  training,  if  kept  subservient  to  a 
paramount  conception  of  education.  But  one  of 
the  great  difficulties  in  this  period  of  life  is  to  avoid 
making  occupations  obligatory,  and  over-systema- 
tizing. We  have  to  respect  the  spontaneity  of  the 
child ;  we  have  to  be  careful  not  to  disturb  un- 
necessarily its  healthy  absorption  in  its  own  ideas. 
Children  '*  grow  in  sun  and  shower,"  in  "  the 
silence  and  the  calm  of  mute,  insensate  things  ; " 
they  have  spiritual  food  imperceptible  to  our 
coarser  sight,  and  we  must  often  stand  aside  and 
meddle  not.  I  remember  one  of  my  own  children, 
a  little  girl  of  six,  being  taken  to  the  sea-side  one 
summer,  and  her  spending  not  only  hours,  but 
days  in  delighted  contemplation  of  the  new  beauty 
around  her.  Sitting  under  the  foliage  of  some 
tamarisks,  she  looked  down  at  the  sunny  sea, 
talking  to  herself  and  her  doll  ;  she  could  scarcely 
be  persuaded  to  come  in  to  her  meals,  I  have 
another  vivid  picture  of  a  period,  when   another 


54    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

child  seemed  to  live  in  his  own  thoughts,  sitting 
on  early  summer  mornings,  in  his  little  chair,  under 
a  verandah,  watching  the  exquisite  life  of  green 
things  and  animals  around  him.  One  such  morn- 
ing he  looked  so  quietly  happy,  that  I  put  my  arms 
round  him,  and  said,  "You're  a  happy  little  boy  to 
enjoy  this  sweet  day."  He  replied,  as  though  he 
had  been  pondering  deeply  on  the  subject,  "  The 
cows  are  more  amusing  animals  than  the  sheep, 
mummie."  The  sheep  were  lying  resting  in  the 
shade. 

A  young  teacher,  experienced  in  High  School 
and  other  teaching,  was  remarking  to  me  the  other 
day,  that  this  sort  of  quiet  life,  when  the  child  is 
allowed  to  grow  after  its  own  fashion,  receptive 
of  the  best  natural  influences,  is  almost  lost  now 
in  the  pressure  of  intellectual  instruction.  The 
modern  children  are  sent  in  their  earliest  years  to 
Kindergarten,  and  then  to  High  Schools,  or  their 
equivalents  ;  examinations  begin  early,  and  follow 
one  another  in  rapid  succession.  The  little  ones 
have  no  time  to  think  their  own  thoughts,  select 
their  own  intellectual  food,  or  develop  after  their 
own  pattern.  They  have  not  even  time  for  real, 
refreshing  play,  this  young  lady  lamented,  "  It 
makes  me  quite  sad.  We  are  no  longer  bringing 
up  real,  sweet,  fresh  children." 

If  this  opinion  is  justified  by  wide  experience, 


Employment  and  Occupation  of  Children.    5  5 

and  that  it  is  so  there  is  some  evidence  to  show,  we 
may  be  assured  that  no  possession  of  knowledge, 
no  intellectual  cleverness,  will  compensate  for  that 
want  of  assimilation  of  influence  which  is  neces- 
sary to  the  growth  of  fine  human  beings.  It  is 
with  the  higher  life  of  young  creatures  as  with 
their  purely  animal  life  :  we  can  supply  the  body 
with  food,  but  it  is  the  chemistry  of  the  digestive 
apparatus  which  converts  this  into  nutrition  ;  a 
more  subtle  chemistry  is  at  work  to  assimilate 
instruction,  knowledge,  influence,  into  material 
for  the  development  of  faculty,  of  character,  of 
spiritual  nobility. 

As  one  means  of  combining  occupation  and 
training  with  no  stress  upon  the  brain,  we  may 
bring  into  our  service  the  desire  to  be  useful  which 
is  so  strong  in  children.  This  is  shown  indirectly, 
as  we  have  noticed,  in  the  nature  of  their  play. 
It  is  observable  in  walks,  which  are  apt  to  be  very 
monotonous  and  dull,  if  taken  merely  as  a  duty 
to  health.  In  the  country,  it  is  true,  they  may 
become  delightful,  informal  rambles  in  search  of 
flowers,  ferns,  or  other  natural  objects ;  but  in  bad 
weather,  a  purpose  in  going  out,  a  commission  for 
their  mother,  shopping,  something  which  makes 
the  child  of  use,  is  as  valuable  in  satisfying  the 
moral  sense  as  it  is  in  giving  interest  to  physical 
exercise.      Easy  household  work,  adapted  to  the 


56    Notes  on  the  Early  Trai7ii7ig  of  Children. 

strength  of  children,  is  another  excellent  factor  in 
training-.  Nothing  is  more  delightful  to  children 
than  exercise  of  this  kind;  brushing  with  a  toy  brush, 
dusting  (learning  delicacy  of  handling  the  while), 
giving  out  stores  with  their  mother,  filling  tea- 
caddies  and  sugar-basins,  all  fulfil  this  sense  of  ser- 
vice. I  have  watched  the  deliirht  of  little  maidens 
of  five,  six,  and  older,  who  were  allowed  on  holidays 
to  have  a  wash  of  dolls'  clothes,,  and  who,  under  the 
shade  of  a  tree,  with  their  tub,  and  soap  and  water, 
went  through  the  various  stages  of  the  process 
with  happy  industry,  stretching  their  delicate  dry- 
ing lines,  and  afterwards  ironing  the  tiny  clothes 
with  toy  irons,  heated  safely  by  their  nurse.  A 
little  cooking  stove,  given  to  these  same  children 
by  a  German  friend,  was  also  an  incitement  to  great 
efforts  of  skill ;  Liliputian  pancakes,  puddings, 
&c.,  were  produced  by  its  help,  to  the  triumph 
of  the  small  cooks,  who  doubtless  learned  in  the 
amusement  something  of  order,  patience,  and 
contrivance. 

Reading  aloud  to  children  occupies  them  in  the 
most  fruitful  manner  at  this  period  of  life.  To 
those  little  ones  who  have  been  accustomed  to 
listen  to  stories  from  the  time  they  could  under- 
stand a  simple  narrative  at  all,  the  effort  of  listen- 
ing with  intelligence  and  attention  is  slight;  to 
those  with  whom  this  has  not  been  a  habit,  some 


Employment  and  Occupation  of  Childreti.    57 

little  effort  is  required  to  listen  with  pleasure. 
But  some  of  the  most  cherished  associations  of 
the  family  life  often  cluster  round  the  "  children's 
hour "  of  reading ;  association  with  the  father 
and  mother's  time  of  leisure,  with  the  bright  fire- 
side, or  the  sunny  afternoon  under  trees,  with  the 
scent  and  sounds  of  happy  summer  around,  when 
the  children  sit  entranced  with  the  stories  of 
Grimm  or  Andersen,  the  "  Feats  on  the  Fjord,"  or 
the  "  Water  Babies."  Perhaps  to  such  readings 
may  be  traced  the  beginning  of  a  love  of  books,  a 
delight  in  literature,  which  is  one  of  the  supreme 
happinesses  of  life.  In  the  same  educational  rank 
I  would  also  put  the  learning  of  poetry  by  rote, 
the  learning  it  from  the  lips  of  the  mother.  I  do 
not  mean  the  repeating  of  mere  rhyme.  I  have  a 
great  objection  to  giving  children  inferior  litera- 
ture. I  shrink  from  teaching  them  doggerel  of  any 
description  after  they  can  understand  anythino^ 
better  than  the  couplets  we  sing  to  them  in  lulla- 
bies. Fortunately,  in  the  abundant  collections  of 
poetry  that  have  been  made  for  children,  while 
there  are  many  poems  entirely  beyond  their  inter- 
est, there  are  a  number  of  our  finest  poems  which 
appeal  to  the  world  of  children  as  thoroughly  as  to 
older  readers.  There  are  others  scattered  amidst 
the  treasures  of  English  literature,  and  it  is  these 
which  should  be  taught  to  children.     The  delight 


58    Notes  071  the  Early  Training  of  CJiildren. 

in  rhythm  is  strong  in  Httle  children,  and  simple 
ideas  clothed  in  this  form  appeal  very  quickly  to 
them, — I  have  often  been  surprised  to  notice  how 
quickly  and  strongly.  I  have  found  children  be- 
tween four  and  six  years  of  age,  love,  and  repeat, 
with  touching  emphasis  and  beauty,  a  large  variety 
of  English  poems,  the  Percy  Ballads  as  a  matter 
of  course,  and  Macaulay's  fine  modern  ballads ; 
some  of  Browning's  lyrics,  many  of  Tennyson's, 
and  scattered  simple  gems  of  Shakespeare,  Cole- 
ridge, Wordsworth,  Keats,  and  many  others.^ 

To  this  time  of  learning  without  lessons  I 
should  point  as  the  period  of  all  others  for 
acquiring  fluency  in  speaking  foreign  languages. 
Never  again  will  it  be  so  easy  for  the  little  ones 
to  learn  a  language,  as  it  should  be  learned,  by 
hearing  it  spoken.  The  time  will  probably  come 
when  the  speaking  a  modern  language  will  be  put 
in  its  natural  place,  before,  not  after,  the  learning 
it  from  books,  and  when  opportunities  of  ac- 
quiring modern  European  languages  will  be  made 
a    matter    of    international    educational     interest. 

1  As  there  exist  many  opinions  as  to  what  is  fit  for  very 
little  children  (witness  the  numerous  collections  and  selections 
made  for  them),  I  may  mention  some  poems  which  I  have 
always  fountl  great  favourites  : — Tennyson's  "  When  cats  run 
home,"  Wordsworth's  "Lines  written  in  March,"  Browning's 
"The  Year's  at  the  Spring,"  from  "  Pippa  Passes,"  Ariel's  Song, 
Coleridge's  "  What  the  Birds  Say." 


Employment  and  Occupation  of  CJiildren.     59 

For  the  present,  parents  will  do  wisely  to  make 
great  efforts  to  give  to  their  little  ones  the  real 
possession  of  French  and  German  that  can  be  got 
from  the  companionship  of  French  and  German 
maids  or  teachers.  Few  acquirements  will  prove 
in  after-life  more  useful  or  enjoyable  ;  and  lan- 
guages can  be  learned  with  perfect  ease  in  the 
ordinary  daily  life  of  the  household.  A  child  so 
taught  may  sometimes  translate  a  French  idiom 
into  English  speech,  or  give  a  German  turn  to  a 
sentence ;  but  this  is  a  slight  disadvantage  in 
comparison  with  the  knowledge  of  the  language 
gained,  and  the  natural  ease  with  which  it  is 
acquired. 

Singing,  as  a  training  of  ear  and  voice,  and  as 
a  health-crivinof  exercise,  should  be  encourajjed  in 
young  children.  We  cannot  tell  how  early  the 
pleasing  sense  of  musical  cadence  affects  a  child. 
In  some  children  it  is  blended  with  the  earliest, 
haziest  recollection  of  life  at  all,  as  though  they 
had  been  literally  "  cradled  in  sweet  song ; "  and 
we  may  be  sure  that  the  hearing  of  musical  sounds, 
and  sinorino-  in  association  with  others,  are  for  the 
child,  as  for  the  adult,  powerful  influences  in 
awakening  sympathetic  emotion,  and  pleasure  in 
associated  action. 

Drawing  and  painting,  from  the  first  rude  daubs 
of  colour  and  primitive  scratches  which  children 


6o    Notes  on  the  Early  Traitiing  of  Children. 

delight  in,  are  employments  which  have  educa- 
tional value.  With  a  little  encouragement  the 
sight  may  be  trained  to  notice  slight  agreements 
or  differences  in  form  and  colour,  and  the  hand 
led  to  use  both  as  primitive  means  of  expression. 

For  guidance  in  the  more  direct  teaching  with- 
out books,  which  will  almost  inevitably  be  de- 
manded by  children  in  cultured  homes,  parents 
should  read  the  early  chapters  of  Rousseau's 
"Emile;"^  for  with  all  the  writer's  faults  of  con- 
ception and  practice,  no  one  I  know  of  has  more 
thoroughly  insisted  upon  the  child's  learning 
directly  from  nature  and  natural  laws.  Treading 
in  Rousseau's  steps,  we  must  seize  the  occasions 
which  arise  in  the  daily  life  of  every  family,  for 
giving  assistance  to  such  learning ;  and  this  assist- 
ance is  given  best  of  all  in  the  country,  where,  if 
it  were  possible,  all  children  should  live  for  the 
first  ten  years,  at  least,  of  their  lives.  A  child 
should  only  be  employed  or  amused  indoors 
when  the  weather,  or  the  time  of  year  or  day 
makes  it  impossible  for  it  to  be  out  of  doors.  The 
physical  exercises  which  belong  to  out-of-door  life 
have  immense  fascination  for  children  ;  and  the 
educator  will  do  wisely  to  teach  and  encourage 
every  physical  art  or  skill  in  its  due  time  and 
season.  Dancing,  swinging,  climbing,  riding, 
rowing,  swimming,  for  girls  as  well  as  for  boys, 

1  l'ul)li.shcd  by  D.  C.  Hcalli  &  Co.,  Boston. 


Employment  and  Occupation  of  Children.     6 1 

will  not  only  promote  physical  development  and 
health,  but  will  foster  courage  and  those  mental 
and  moral  qualities  necessary  to  the  acquire- 
ment of  any  skill,  or  the  practice  of  it  in  asso- 
ciation with  companions. 

The  animals  in  the  home  of  the  child  will  fur- 
nish many  self  sought  lessons  :  the  examination 
of  "pussy's"  teeth  and  fur,  and  retractile  claws, 
will  suggest  comparison  of  the  differences  to  be 
found  in  the  spaniel  or  retriever ;  and  the  child's 
interest  will  be  led  to  the  bio-  cats  and  dog^s — the 
larger  carnivora — to  be  found  in  the  countries 
away  from  England.  The  horses  and  cows  will 
be  examples  of  other  kinds  of  animals,  and  grad- 
ually the  whole  zoological  divisions,  with  their 
classes  and  families,  will  be  almost  imperceptibly 
learned.  The  mother  will  illustrate  each  step  by 
pictures,  visits,  when  possible,  to  the  Zoological 
Gardens,  and  descriptions  of  the  habitat  of  foreign 
animals.  The  same  process  will  go  on  with  the 
familiar  birds,  reptiles,  insects,  and  plants.  The 
rice  pudding  at  dinner  may  suggest  questions  as 
to  the  food  stuffs,  or  where  rice  comes  from  ;  and 
the  mother  will  procure  pictures  or  examples  of 
the  cereals  :  she  will  tell  the  child  of  the  cultiva- 
tion of  rice  in  the  plains  of  Lombardy  and  Patna, 
and  will  try  to  make  him  realize,  in  a  picturesque, 
simple  manner,  the  wonders  which  lie  under  the 


62    Azotes  on  the  Early  T^'aining  of  Children, 

familiar  objects  of  home.  Plants  and  animals 
will  lead  by  an  easy  association  of  ideas  to 
geography.  The  mother  will  try  to  make  the 
child  realize  in  this  direction  also  what  is  dif- 
ferent from  his  own  experience.  She  will  set  his 
imagination  to  work,  she  will  s[ive  him  material  for 
geographical  ideas  in  the  concrete ;  she  will  take 
him  to  a  common  and  show  him  what  a  miniature 
plain  is,  and  allow  him  to  make  for  himself  a 
range  of  mountains,  with  its  spurs  and  valleys ;  or 
let  him  picture,  in  an  old  gravel-pit,  the  level  of 
the  sea,  with  bays  and  capes,  islands  and  isth- 
muses. Then  a  map,  first  of  the  room,  then  of 
the  village  or  town,  then  of  the  country,  and  so 
on,  becomes  a  symbol  illuminated  by  ideas. 

Sets  of  real  measures  are  one  of  the  most  de- 
lightful of  toys,  and  teach  in  another  direction.  A 
child  will  enjoy  measuring  a  room  or  a  lawn,  when 
he  has  mastered  the  divisions  of  the  foot  or  yard 
measure.  He  will  be  happy  in  proving  for  himself 
that  eight  ounces  equal  the  half  pound  of  sugar, 
and  two  pints  one  quart  of  water.  Fractions  are 
no  difficulty  when  thus  taught  in  the  concrete. 
The  idea  of  square  and  cubic  measures  are  at 
once  clear,  if  both  are  shown  by  a  wooden  box 
made  a  cubic  foot  in  size,  with  a  lid  divided 
into  the  144  inches.  Number  early  attracts  the 
attention    of   children ;    and    Mr.    Sonnenschein's 


Employment  and  Occupation  of  Children.     63 

"  Number  Pictures "  will  illustrate,  in  ways  de- 
lightful to  them,  numbers  up  to  twelve.  The 
use  of  his  cubes  and  staves  will  carry  them  fur- 
ther in  the  appreciation  of  number  ;  but  every 
step  in  this,  as  in  all  other  subjects,  should  be 
taken  upon  the  child's  lead,  never  before.  Simple 
geometrical  ideas  will  be  helped  by  the  use  of 
the  Kindergarten  sticks  and  cubes ;  and  the 
placing  of  these  will  exercise  the  imagination 
and  tax  the  ingenuity  and  patience  of  the  child, 
besides  giving  him  occupation  day  after  day. 
Children  taught  in  this  way  invent  endless  games 
for  themselves.  They  will  cause  rivers  to  flow 
through  their  gardens  and  create  fountains  ;  they 
will  make  locks  and  deltas  ;  and  though  they  may 
perchance  neglect  to  turn  off  a  tap,  and  will  often 
cover  themselves  with  mud,  what  happy  hours 
will  be  spent  by  them,  in  learning,  or  verifying  a 
few  facts  for  themselves  ! 

The  easy,  natural  teaching  of  physical  laws 
in  obedience  to  the  child's  demand  for  it,  can  be 
pursued  indefinitely.  The  only  barrier  to  such 
instruction  lies  in  the  scientific  ig^norance  of  the 
generality  of  parents.  Indeed,  such  lessons  de- 
mand of  parents  a  great  deal  besides  knowledge. 
The  teaching  must  be  clear,  simple,  natural,  pic- 
turesque ;  it  must  be  given  in  answer  to  questions, 
and  by  encouraging,  not  stifling,  the  child's  desire 


64    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

for  Information.  It  must  not  be  given  In  preach- 
inof ;  the  formal  didactic  fathers  and  mothers  of 
the  type  to  be  found  in  the  books  of  Mrs.  Marcet 
and  Miss  Edgeworth  are  happily  out  of  fashion, 
and  we  do  not  desire  to  revive  the  school. 
Parents  will  be  assured  of  their  success  in  this 
kind  of  teaching,  by  the  vivid  interest  with  which 
their  children  will  pursue  these  beginnings  into 
the  wider  studies  of  the  years  that  come  after  ; 
and  by  the  happiness  which  attends  the  acquisi- 
tion of  ideas,  and  tends  to  make  the  life  of  every 
day  joyful  in  activity,  love,  and  reverence. 


Reverence,  65 


CHAPTER    V. 

SOME  CARDINAL  VIRTUES.— REVERENCE. 

"  Let  parents  then  bequeath  to  their  children,  not  riches, 
but  the  spirit  of  reverence." 

Flatds  Laws,  Book  V.  (JFowett). 

In  the  story  of  Christ  placing  the  child  in  the 
midst  of  the  disciples  disputing  who  should  be 
greatest,  we  have  a  typical  example  of  the  ideal 
attitude  of  childhood.  Without  a  thought  of 
self-aggrandizement,  wholly  unconscious,  humble, 
receptive,  the  little  one  stands  by  the  side  of  the 
great  Teacher,  a  rebuke  to  those  who  were  full 
of  selfish  thoughts,  an  example  of  that  mental 
state  that  must  be  reached  before  the  adult  mind 
can  approach  perfection.  In  its  earliest  stages 
of  development  we  see  that  the  child  exhibits 
this  ideal  attitude.  It  is  helpless,  and  it  seeks 
protection  ;  it  is  ignorant,  and  it  seeks  to  learn, 
and  seems  to  the  vision  of  those  older — • 

**  Trailing  clouds  of  glory    .     .    , 
From  God  who  is  our  home." 

But  soon  its  individuality  asserts  itself,  its  activity 

E 


66    Notes  071  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

increases,  and  with  the  exercise  of  new  powers, 
its  sense  of  importance  to  those  around  it,  and 
delight  in  their  appreciation  keeps  pace.  In 
more  or  less  degree,  it  becomes  cognizant  of  the 
false  estimates  and  conventional  standards  of  the 
world  outside  it. 

A  new  task  lies  before  us  ;  we  have  to  guard 
its  humility,  to  teach  it  the  true  proportion  of 
things  in  the  mental  and  moral  worlds  ;  we  have 
to  maintain  its  childlike  attitude  by  training  its 
reverence,  that  mental  state  in  which  the  spiritual 
nature  is  fit  to  receive  new  truth  and  new  influ- 
ence ;  that  state  in  which  individuality  perceives 
its  small  and  lowly  place  in  the  great  scheme  of 
thinofs,  in  which  self  is  lost  in  some  grreat  idea.^ 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  neither  of  the  two 
prominent  modern  writers  on  education — Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  and  Professor  Bain — treats  of 
reverence  in  its  relation  to  moral  education.  I 
believe  the  word  does  not  occur  in  the  chapters 
treating  of  that  division  of  their  subject.      The 

1  "Yet,  however  doubtful  may  be  its  position,  if  estimated 
by  its  bearing  on  happiness  and  progress,  there  are  few  persons 
who  are  not  conscious  that  no  character  can  attain  a  supreme 
degree  of  excellence  in  which  a  reverential  s])irit  is  wanting.  Of 
all  the  forms  of  moral  goodness,  it  is  that  to  which  the  epithet 
*  beautiful '  may  be  most  emphatically  applied.  Yet  the  habits 
of  advancing  civilization  are,  if  I  mistake  not,  on  the  whole, 
inimical  to  its  growth." — Lecky's  '■''  History  of  European  Morals'* 


Reverence,  67 

omission  may  be  characteristic  of  the  modern 
spirit,  and  the  critical  attitude  which  is  born  of 
it,  or  it  may  be  that  the  ideal  of  human  excel- 
lence conceived  by  these  writers  on  education 
does  not  correspond  with  that  standard  which 
exists  vaguely  in  men's  minds.  It  is  true  Pro- 
fessor Bain  says,^  "  Th^  briefest  glance  at  moral 
teaching  must  not  omit  the  topic  of  moral  ideals. 
It  is  in  morality  more  especially  that  the  teacher 
works  by  putting  forward  grand,  lofty,  and  even 
unapproachable  ideals  ;  the  supposition  being  that 
the  charm  and  attractiveness  of  these  will  make 
a  far  more  powerful  impression  than  any  un- 
varnished statement  of  consequences."  But  we 
fail  to  find  in  his  "classification"  of  "cardinal 
virtues,"  his  apprehension  of  "  motives,"  or  his 
survey  of  the  *'  relationships  of  society,"  any 
strong  stimulus  to  the  approach  of  these  ideals. 
We  rise  from  reading  his  chapter  on  "  Moral 
Education  "  with  the  melancholy  impression  that, 
just  at  the  most  critical  point  of  our  task,  we  arc 
left  by  our  guide  without  any  sure  support,  and 
with  no  fixed  aim  for  the  guidance  of  our  steps. 
"  The  earth  is  salted  by  the  heroism  of  the  few," 
he  says  ;  and  we  must  be  content,  we  read  be- 
tween the  lines,  if  we  produce  average  men  and 
women ;  we  shall  then  be  sure  to  have  well-in- 
1  "  Education  as  a  Science." 


68    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

structed,  intelligent,  honest  citizens,  in  whom  the 
self-recfardino:  and  social  motives  will  be  well 
balanced,  the  emotions  admirably  controlled,  and 
the  affairs  of  life  conducted  with  a  due  regard  of 
all  obligations.  "  Remember,"  says  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer,  "  that  the  aim  of  discipline  should  be 
to  produce  a  self-governing  being."  "  The  inde- 
pendent English  boy  is  the  father  of  the  in- 
dependent Englishman."  "  What  is  it  that  we 
aim  to  do  ?  Is  it  not  that  education,  of  whatever 
kind,  has  for  its  proximate  end  to  prepare  a  child 
for  the  business  of  life — to  produce  a  citizen  who, 
while  he  is  well  conducted,  is  also  able  to  make 
his  way  in  the  world  }  " 

But,  alas !  for  the  results,  if  we  educate  for 
what  may  be  safely  compassed  with  an  eye  open 
to  the  mere  "  business  of  life."  It  is  true,  we 
must  train  so  that  our  boy  will  grow  up  to  take  a 
useful  and  honourable  place  in  the  world,  that  he 
should  be  self-restrained,  governing  himself  by 
the  help  of  his  conscience,  that  he  should  be- 
come a  good  citizen  with  sufficient  will,  foresight, 
and  prudence  to  shape  circumstances,  rather  than 
be  shaped  essentially  by  them  ;  but  we  desire 
this  for  him  because  we  aim  at  the  greater  which 
includes  it.  We  will,  with  God's  help,  try  our 
best  to  train  the  boy  for  manhood,  fitting  him 
for  work  and  usefulness  in  the  century  in  which 


Reverence.  69 

he  lives,  but  otherwise  possessing  character  and 
aspirations  which  belong  to  human  excellence  at 
any  time,  and  in  any  position.  We  cannot  as- 
suredly educate  him,  with  all  our  pains,  into  a 
finer  human  being  than  he  is  planned  to  become  ; 
but  when  can  we  assure  ourselves  we  have  ful- 
filled the  original  plan  of  his  nature  ?  When  can 
we  say  we  have  reached  the  limits  assigned  to  its 
development  in  any  one  direction  ?  It  is  a  re- 
verential attitude  towards  the  possibilities  in  the 
child's  nature  which  will  make  great  results  in 
education  possible. 

Going  back  to  a  time  of  perhaps  less  doubt 
and  criticism  than  the  present,  we  find  Milton 
holding  this  attitude,  and  speaking  with  far  less 
uncertainty  either  of  what  we  should  attempt  in 
education,  or  of  the  means  to  attain  it.  "  The 
end  then  of  learning  is  ...  to  know  God  aright, 
and  out  of  that  knowledge  to  love  Him,  to  imi- 
tate Him,  to  be  like  Him,  as  we  may  the  nearest 
by  possessing  our  souls  of  true  virtue."  And 
again,  "  Here  the  main  skill  and  ground-work  will 
be  to  temper  them  with  such  lectures  and  expla- 
nations upon  every  opportunity  as  may  lead  and 
draw  them  to  willing  obedience,  inflamed  with  the 
study  of  learning  and  the  admiration  of  virtue  ; 
stirred  up  with  high  hopes  of  living  to  be  brave 
men  and  worthy  patriots,  dear  to  God  and  famous 


/O    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  CJiildren. 

to  all  ages."  And  again  still,  "  Being  perfect  in 
the  knowledge  of  personal  duty." 

We  find  the  same  thought  expressed  by  Plato/ 
"  Every  man  ought  to  make'  up  his  mind  that  he 
will  be  one  of  the  followers  of  the  God  ;  there 
can  be  no  doubt  of  that."  "  Then  what  life  is 
agreeable  to  God  and  becominor  to  His  followers  ? 
One  only,  according  to  the  old  saying  that  '  like 
agrees  wath  like,  with  measure,  measure.  .  .  . 
Now  God  is  the  measure  of  all  things"  in  a  sense 
far  higher  than  any  man,  as  they  say,  can  ever 
hope  to  be.  And  he  who  would  be  dear  to  God 
must,  as  far  as  possible,  be  like  Him,  and  such  as 
He  is."  Now  here  w^e  have  given  to  us  "  grand, 
lofty,  and  even  unapproachable  ideals,"  which 
touch  the  noblest  chords  of  the  human  spirit  "  to 
fine  issues." 

I  know  we  get  on  very  difficult  ground  when 
we  seek  to  discover  how  far  the  present  w^ant 
of  fixity  and  earnestness  in  religious  beliefs  has 
affected  the  ideal  in  human  excellence.  But  what 
we  have  to  do  as  educators  is  undoubtedly  to 
find  an  ideal  of  perennial  grandeur,  and  to  train 
towards  it ;  whatever  we  then  attain  will  be  at 
least  in  the  right  direction.  And  parents,  whether 
they  believe  in  a  personal  God,  or  in  Humanity, 
or  Law,  or  Natural  Religion  of  any  kind,  provided 
^  Plato's  Lawj,  Book  IV.  (Jowett). 


■■■ 


Reverence.  7 1 

that  they  have  a  real,  earnest  belief  which 
governs  the  secret  springs  of  their  life,  possess 
the  true  source  of  influence. 

The  first  dawn  of  reverence  comes  vaguely  to 
the  child  through  its  relation  to  its  parents ;  it 
can  conceive  no  abstract  notion  of  goodness, 
love,  wisdom.  But  the  time  comes  with  a  larger 
horizon,  when  the  young  creature  is  forced  to 
measure  his  parents  against  other  standards. 
Another  idea  of  perfection  arises  in  him,  an  idea 
his  parents  themselves  have  fostered,  and  gra- 
dually and  naturally  his  love  and  respect  grows 
into  another  and  bigger,  but  more  indefinite 
emotion  —  reverence.  A  child  will  very  early 
touch  upon  the  mysteries  of  its  being,  it  will  not 
long  be  content  with  the  small  horizon  of  the 
visible  and  the  concrete.  It  will  seek  with  its 
infant  intelligence  to  dive  into  the  origin  of  things, 
and  to  grasp  with  its  childish  thought — death, 
immortality,  omnipotence.  Here  again  is  a  begin- 
ning which  shall  lead  him,  a  child-like  learner, 
through  the  wonders  of  life,  and  even  to  the  por- 
tals of  the  grave.  How  infinitely  beautiful  and 
touching  is  the  duty  laid  upon  parents  in  dealing 
with  this  growth  of  spiritual  life  !  How  sacred 
is  the  obligation  to  deal  with  it  in  perfect  truth! 
I  have  known  parents  imbued  with  the  doubt  and 
scepticisms  of  the  modern   life,  who  yet  thought 


72    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  CJiildren. 

it  good  that  their  cliildren  should  believe,  while 
they  could,  the  orthodox  religious  views  of  the 
time,  supposing  it  to  have  a  healthy  influence 
upon  character ;  and  so  the  Bible  reading,  and 
grace,  and  prayers  were  continued  in  the  family 
life  with  a  sort  of  fetish  devotion. 

I  have  little  doubt  that  this  want  of  truth 
between  parents  and  children  must  come  to  a 
disastrous  end.  We  can  only  really  teach  what 
we  believe  ourselves,  and,  whether  that  belief 
embraces  much  or  little,  the  reality  with  which 
we  hold  it  will  make  it  a  religious  influence,  or 
the  reverse.  Let  parents  be  assured  that  young 
human  creatures  crave  for  spiritual  food  and 
guidance  under  some  form  or  other.  I  have 
known  parents  who  have  ignored  such  craving, 
believing,  in  their  own  well-poised  philosophy,  that 
it  came  only  from  the  teaching  of  priests  or  bigots. 
And  they  have  lived  to  discover  their  children 
taking  theological  yokes  and  burdens  of  belief 
upon  them,  which  far  transcended  in  severity  and 
narrowness  the  theology  they  first  feared  for  them. 

But  reverence  is  not  to  be  limited  to  the  atti- 
tude towards  one  great  idea  or  personality.  It  is 
the  very  basis  of  human  excellence,  and  we  have 
to  foster  it  in  the  training  of  all  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities.  Throughout  every  stage  of  in- 
struction,   we    must   guard    the    humility    of  the 


Reverence.  73 

child ;  we  must  impress  him  through  his  percep- 
tion and  imagination  with  the  vastness  of  know- 
ledge, and  the  small  amount  he  can  ever  hope  to 
master.  So  impressed,  he  is  not  likely  to  think 
himself  very  clever  or  very  grand  if  he  makes  a 
little  step  in  attainment.  Do  not  criticize  people 
before  him,  particularly  those  who  supply  any  of 
his  needs — servants  or  teachers.  I  have  known 
children  so  prone  to  dwell  on  the  small  details 
and  defects  of  those  about  them,  that  larger 
virtues  and  goodness  were  entirely  lost  sight  of. 
A  child  should  live  as  much  as  possible  in  "  ad- 
miration," and  should  be  taught  that  respect  for 
humanity  which  is  the  basis  of  all  true  courtesy. 
In  m.any  small  ways  this  may  be  made  apparent 
to  the  child.  The  old  type  of  "  manners  "  is  re- 
placed by  a  more  natural  and  more  affectionate 
relation  between  parents  and  children,  who  no 
longer  stand  with  formal  respect  behind  the  chairs 
of  their  fathers  and  mothers  and  address  them 
as  "Sir"  or  "Madam."  But  if  Punch  is  a  true 
mirror  of  manners,  the  change  has  been  made 
with  a  vicious  jerk.  Fathers  are  too  often  old 
"  Governors,"  who  "  fork  out  "  liberal  supplies  of 
money,  and  are  looked  upon  as  the  convenient 
source  of  much  luxury.  The  mothers  are  a  dif- 
ferent edition  of  the  same  type,  chiefly  anxious 
for  the  worldly  prosperity  of  their  children,  and 


74    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  CJiildren, 

possessing  little  claim  upon  their  respect  or  real 
love.  It  is  obvious  that  we  as  parents  must  be 
worthy  of  respect,  or  we  cannot  claim  it  with 
much  expectation  of  getting  it.  Nevertheless,  it 
is  hurtful  to  the  training  of  reverence  if  we  permit 
unchecked,  as  many  fond  mothers  thoughtlessly 
do,  any  want  of  the  outward  respect  due  to  parents. 
In  words  and  manners  we  must  teach  the  child 
reverential  courtesy  to  the  old,  the  weak,  and  to 
those  who  serve  him.  Service  must  be  regarded 
as  a  favour,  a  kindness  done  to  him,  to  be  re- 
quested, never  a  right  to  be  ordered.  Guard  a 
boy's  chivalrous  respect  for  women  ;  for  servant- 
maids  as  well  as  for  his  sisters  ;  in  literature  and  in 
life  seek  that  his  ideal  of  womanhood  claims  all 
that  is  most  worthy  of  reverence  in  him.  Stimu- 
late reverence  for  great  living  men  and  women. 
The  reverence  of  people  who  are  realized  to  be 
alive  at  the  present  moment  is  a  stronger  motive 
for  noble  aspirations  than  a  feeling  awakened 
towards  heroes  whose  lives  can  be  less  easily 
compared  to  those  of  the  children.  It  is  said 
that  Pope  never  forgot  the  distant  sight  of  Dryden 
at  a  book-sale,  and  it  is  a  great  happiness  to  allow 
cliildren  sonie  personal  knowledge  of  those  they 
are  prepared  to  reverence.  To  take  an  intelligent 
child  to  a  lecture  by  a  great  scholar  or  discoverer 
is  not  wasted  trouble. 


Reverence,  75 

Little  children  suffer  greatly  from  shyness  or 
fear  in  the  presence  of  strangers  ;  but  if  they  live 
much  in  their  mothers'  rooms  they  should  be 
led  to  overcome  the  first  impulsive  rudeness,  to 
continue  their  occupations,  and  receive  kindly 
advances  with  respectful  quietude.  It  is  bad 
training  for  the  child,  to  let  it  stand  with  pouting 
lips,  or  its  fingers  in  its  mouth,  sullenly  defiant, 
or  intrusive  with  offensive  remarks  such  as,  "  I 
don't  like  that  lady,  she's  ugly."  The  mother 
will  do  well  to  remark  upon  the  kindness  of  her 
friends  who  make  advances  to  the  children,  to 
notice  some  pleasant  trait  in  them,  and  encourage 
the  little  ones  to  do  some  small  office  for  the 
visitors ;  the  handing  of  a  tea-cup,  or  moving  a 
book,  will  make  the  children  lose  their  self-con- 
sciousness in  another  feeling. 
V  The  want  of  reverence  which  is  often  declared 
to  be  most  characteristic  of  modern  children  is 
attributed  to  the  undue  importance  given  by 
anxious  parents  to  their  position  in  the  household. 
It  is  true  that  the  welfare  of  their  children,  even 
in  the  slightest  particular,  is  of  the  greatest 
moment  to  conscientious  parents  ;  but  it  is  the 
interest  of  their  moral  and  spiritual  natures  which 
should  be  paramount,  and  these  will  never  require 
the  sacrifice  of  other  people's  convenience.  They 
will  never  allow  the  peace  and  comfort  of  guests 


76    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Cliildren. 

to  be  ignored  in  attention  to  trivial  concerns  of 
the  children  of  the  family.  And  if  these  best 
interests  were  always  kept  in  view,  we  should  not 
see,  as  unhappily  we  often  see  now,  the  teacher 
whose  intellect  the  parents  profess  to  admire, 
served  at  table  after  a  child  of  six  years  old,  or 
permitted  to  step  into  a  carriage  after  her.  Per- 
haps the  best  training  in  reverence  the  children  of 
a  family  can  have,  will  be  in  sharing  in  the  life  of 
their  parents,  in  being  allowed  to  understand,  as 
far  as  possible,  their  aims  and  hopes  in  life,  in  seeing 
them  always  ready  to  give  up  their  own  gratifica- 
tion, even  the  pleasure  of  their  children's  society, 
for  the  sake  of  some  duty,  or  in  allegiance  to 
some  idea.  If  they  see  that  the  life  around  them 
is  somethinof  better  than  the  fjratification  of  selfish 
pleasures,  or  even  the  fulfilment  of  immediate 
duties,  if  they  see  that  it  means  losing  self  in  de- 
votion to  what  is  higher  and  better  than  oneself, 
they  will  be  helped  to  keep  in  mind  the  unapproach- 
able ideal,  and,  fulfilling  the  truth  contained  in 
Hawthorn's  beautiful  story  of  the  Great  Stone- 
Face,  they  will  gradually  grow  in  its  likeness,  and 
learn  the  truth  that  Ruskin  has  expressed,  "  This 
is  the  thing  which  I  know  .  .  .  that  in  reverence 
is  the  chief  joy  and  power  of  life."  ^ 

1  Lectures  on  Art,  "  The  Relation  of  Art  to  Religion." 


Truth,  77 


CHAPTER   VI. 

SOME   CARDINAL  VIRTUES.— TRUTH. 

"  Truth  is  the  beginning  of  every  good  thing,  both  in  heaven 
and  on  earth." 

Plato's  Laws,  Book  V.  (Jowelt). 

The  apprehension  of  truth  is  an  intellectual  effort, 
not  an  impulse  of  the  moral  nature ;  and  it  is 
necessary  to  bear  this  in  mind  in  judging  correctly 
of  the  virtue  of  truthfulness.  "  Truth  is  the 
beginning  of  every  good  thing  :  "  "  Truth  is  the 
summit  of  being,"  says  Emerson.  "  Certainly  it  is 
heaven  upon  earth  to  have  a  man's  mind  move  in 
charity,  rest  in  providence,  and  turn  upon  the 
poles  of  truth,"  writes  Bacon  in  his  Essay.  Such 
sentences  come  into  our  mind  when  we  ask 
ourselves,  how  it  is  that  truthfulness  should  be 
regarded  by  the  thoughtful  educator,  and  by  the 
popular  sentiment,  as  such  an  essential  goodness 
in  character  as  to  be  the  salt  wherewith  every- 
thing else  shall  be  salted.  Truth  in  character 
consists  of  that  quality  of  mind  which  seeks  to 


yS    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children, 

recognize  the  ultimate  reality  of  things — the 
facts  which  have  their  origin  in  God — and  at- 
tempts to  form  a  harmony  between  this  great 
background  of  final  truth  and  the  individual 
life.  It  is  this  mental  quality  in  man,  this  at- 
tempted interpretation  of  the  highest  and  best 
he  knozvs,  which  claims  our  reverence  and  re- 
liance, and  leads  us  to  put  so  high  a  value  upon 
the  expression  of  his  knowledge,  of  his  inter- 
pretation. 

We  seize  here  the  idea  that  lies  at  the  found- 
ation of  the  anxiety  about  truthfulness  which 
pervades  most  parental  minds.  We  need  not  be 
surprised  that  this  anxiety  is  generally  unpercep- 
tive  and  unreasoninpr.  Few  discern  what  essential 
truthfulness  implies,  or  trace  its  alliance  with  the 
simple  telling  of  truth.  But  the  educator  perceives 
that  while  his  supreme  duty  lies  in  cultivating 
the  spirit  of  truth  in  the  child,  in  securing  that 
clearness  of  the  intellectual  vision,  that  purity  of 
the  moral  nature  necessary  to  the  reception  and 
transmission  of  truth,  he  must  also  obtain  the 
accurate  expression  of  his  knowledge,  i.e.,  he  must 
train  him  to  be  habitually  truthful  ;  he  must  "  tell 
the  truth."  And  indeed,  unless  a  little  child  has 
inherited  some  crookedness  of  character,  or  is  in- 
fluenced by  any  of  the  motives  we  shall  presently 
examine,  it  is  natural  to  him  to  express  in  words 


Trtdlu  79 

truth  as  he  perceives  it.  It  is  after- influence 
which  causes  him  to  become  an  unfaithful 
medium.  At  the  same  time  we  cannot  expect 
that  the  precious  nature  of  truth  will  appeal  to 
the  understanding  of  very  little  children  ;  even 
in  the  maturity  of  mortal  life  we  only  "see 
through  a  glass  darkly,"  and  while  their  intellec- 
tual powers  are  immature  and  feeble,  it  is  folly  to 
look  for  anything  like  true  appreciation  of  that 
which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  human  and  eternal 
relations.  Such  appreciation  must  grow  with  the 
growth  of  the  whole  being.  We  must  be  content 
to  see  it  in  its  earliest  and  in  its  imperfect  form, 
to  tend  it,  and  strengthen  it  In  the  course  of  its 
growth  we  must  be  even  prepared  to  see  it  waver 
and  falter  in  its  allegiance,  and  must  still  sustain 
our  faith  in  patience,  that  eventually  with  the 
consolidation  of  character,  it  will  become  steady 
and  strong,  and,  flame-like,  embrace  "  the  summit 
of  being." 

I  have  known  parents  seriously  unhappy  at 
the  activity  of  the  imagination  in  their  children. 
Their  dramatic  power  has  seemed  to  them  sad 
evidence  of  untruthfulness.  But  such  unhappi- 
ness  is  ill-founded.  Before  the  child  is  burthened 
with  duties  and  responsibilities,  while  its  own  life 
is  unshaped  before  it,  it  is  free  to  live  in  the  dear 
delights  and  beauty  created    by  its   own    fancy. 


8o    Notes  071  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

With  the  fairy  wand  of  his  imagination,  he  can  be 
an  Aladdin  rubbing  his  lamp,  or  Robinson  Crusoe 
building  his  hut  in  the  shrubbery,  or  a  hunter 
stalking  buffalo  in  the  copse  of  the  meadow.  He 
will  act  out  for  days  or  weeks  the  little  drama 
that  has  seized  his  fancy,  recounting  his  ad- 
ventures to  his  brothers  and  sisters  the  while. 
Or,  to  enliven  a  dull  walk,  he  will  imagine  lions 
and  tigers  in  the  familiar  paths  near  home,  and 
will  tell  his  mother,  on  his  return,  with  innocent 
gravity,  that  he  has  seen  a  Hon  on  the  common ! 
But  the  lines  between  reality  and  drama  are 
generally  clearly  defined  in  the  mind  of  the  little 
actor,  and  we  must  playfully  enter  into  the  spirit 
of  his  play. 

In  this  mimic  world  of  imagination  children 
get  an  activity  of  feeling  and  of  intellectual 
exercise  which  is  fitting  them  for  the  life  of 
the  big  world  presently  to  open  to  them,  and 
are  provided  with  a  wealth  of  happiness  to  be 
found,  I  believe,  in  no  other  way.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  narrow  the  mind  of  childhood  to  the 
grooves  of  our  sterner  and  more  commonplace 
existence.  The  grooves  will  be  formed  all  too 
soon,  and  with  them,  we  will  hope,  will  come  the 
larger  horizon,  the  deeper  insight,  belonging  to 
increased  years.  But  with  the  appearance  of 
every  new  power,  we  must  faithfully  maintain  our 


Truth.  8 1 

reverence  for  nature,  and  as  carefully  obey  her 
dictates  in  leaving  the  child  to  live  in  the  charmed 
world  of  his  imagination,  as  presendy  we  must 
set  before  him  the  duties  which  belong  to  his  real 
position  in  a  world  of  lessons  and  other  human 
obligations.  We  cannot  readily  limit  the  part 
imagination  is  intended  to  play  in  the  child's 
development.  It  begins  to  show  itself  in  games 
and  little  dramas,  but  it  is  the  handmaiden  of 
reverence,  and  helps  to  shape  the  "  unapproach- 
able ideals  "  by  which,  and  for  which,  men  live. 
Even  in  practical  life  it  may  grow  to  "  put  a  girdle 
round  about  the  earth  in  forty  minutes,"  or  steer 
Columbus-like  to  unknown  lands  of  thought. 

In  exaggeration  we  get  a  mild  form  of  untruth- 
fulness which  claims  our  attention  ;  for  if  the  habit 
is  indulged,  a  child  not  only  becomes  accustomed 
to  careless  observation  and  inaccurate  statements 
of  facts,  but  grows  to  confuse  lines  of  thought. 
He  will  tell  you,  en  facon  de  parler,  "There  are 
a  hundred  rooks  on  the  lawn,"  or,  "  That  snail  is 
half-way  down  the  wall."  He  does  not  mean  to 
be  untruthful,  and  it  would  be  very  wrong  to  treat 
him  as  though  he  did.  Nevertheless,  as  a  matter 
of  training  in  observing  the  fact  before  him,  and 
of  stating  his  impression  of  it,  we  shall  do  wisely 
to  recall  him  to  the  rooks  and  the  snail.  "  You 
don't  mean  a  hundred  rooks  ;  see,  we  can  count 

F 


82    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

them  easily.     There  are  only  thirty !  "  or,  **  You 
said  half-way  down  the  wall ;   let  us  measure." 

The  moral  nature  becomes  more  dangerously 
involved  when  an  untruth  is  told  or  acted  to  Sfain 
a  purpose.  Here  a  variety  of  motives  come  into 
play,  and  to  judge  at  all  correctly  of  any  departure 
from  truthfulness  it  is  necessary  to  unravel  its 
motive.  With  very  little  children,  who  cannot 
yet  understand  why  the  obligation  of  strict  truth- 
fulness should  be  laid  upon  them,  any  small 
motive  of  convenience,  idleness,  or  desire  is 
sometimes  sufficient  to  evoke  from  them  a  false 
statement,  or  a  misleading  colouring.  But 
parents  must  not  lay  stress  upon  these  childish 
aberrations.  The  inaccuracy  probably  belongs 
to  a  very  passing  phase  in  well-trained  children, 
and  it  will  often  disappear  with  better  health,  or 
with  stronger  development  of  the  intellectual 
faculties ;  and  though  we  must  watch  well  in  such 
cases,  and  always  keep  in  view  the  relation  of 
small  things  to  big,  we  may  do  a  child  a  serious 
wrong  if  we  make  much  of  these  childish  errors 
of  speech.  Our  training  as  a  whole  will  justify 
itself. 

Among  motives  which  instigate  a  serious  want 
of  truthfulness,  perhaps  the  most  common  is  fear. 
I  have  endeavoured  to  show  before  that  this 
should    have    no    presence   in   a  child's   life.      In 


Truth,  83 

every  direction  it  degrades  the  moral  nature  :  in 
this  especially  it  tends  to  prevent  him  remaining 
a  medium  of  truth.  He  is  guilty  of  some  piece 
of  carelessness,  he  disobeys  an  order  or  breaks 
a  bit  of  cherished  china,  and  under  the  influence 
of  fear  he  denies  the  fact,  and  runs  the  risk  of 
becoming  habitually  untruthful  if  the  dread  of 
punishment  is  held  over  him.  There  are  few- 
children  who  are  made  of  such  naturally  heroic 
stuff  as  the  late  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  who,  when 
enticed  by  his  school-fellows  to  follow  their  ex- 
ample and  throw  a  ball  in  dangerous  proximity 
to  a  forbidden  window,  went  straight  to  his  mas- 
ter, "  doubtless  amidst  roars  of  laughter,"  says  his 
biographer,  with,  "  I  have  come  to  say,  sir,  I  have 
broken  a  window."  Indeed  we  have  no  right  to 
expect  heroism  from  average  young  creatures  yet 
unfledged  in  morality.  We  may  be  happy  if  our 
training  eventually  leads  to  it. 

Love  may  be  almost  as  powerful  a  motive  to 
untruth  as  fear,  and  some  of  the  best  children  are 
tempted  by  a  mistaken  idea  of  chivalrous  gener- 
osity to  screen  a  companion  from  the  consequences 
of  a  fault  by  an  untruth  in  word  or  deed.  A  bov 
is  asked  about  some  wrong-doing  that  has  gone 
on  in  his  presence,  and  refuses  to  state  what  he 
knows  about  it ;  indeed,  he  is  proud  if  by  some 
semblance  of  untruth  he  can  lead  his  master  off 


84    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children^ 

the  scent  of  discovery.  Or  a  school-fellow  uses 
a  "  crib,"  or  copies  the  sum  of  a  companion  and 
passes  it  for  his  own ;  or  a  boy  has  spent  his 
allowance,  and  makes  a  false  excuse  to  get  more 
money  from  his  father.  Here  we  have  another 
variety  of  motives  leading  to  untruth  in  several 
forms,  and  the  educator  cannot  shrink  from  facing 
the  problems  brought  to  him  as  results  of  early  or 
mistaken  training. 

The  generality  of  the  world  believe  that  punish- 
ment can  correct  untruthfulness  ;  no  discrimina- 
tion of  motive  is  thought  necessary.  Unreason- 
able as  it  is,  the  several  kinds  of  the  evil  are 
treated  in  the  same  manner.  Now,  an  intellectual 
perception  is  not  made  clearer  by  punishment, 
although  pain  may  possibly  quicken  a  child's 
attention  to  a  fact,  or  may  deter  him  from  making 
a  false  statement  concerning  it.  But  can  we 
reasonably  hope  to  make  by  punishment  a  radical 
chancfe  in  the  mind  of  one  who  allows  various 
trivial  motives  to  swerve  him  from  the  truth  }  And 
this  is  what  we  have  to  set  ourselves  to  do.  Sup- 
pose we  accept  as  reasonable  and  discriminating 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  theory  of  punishment,  and, 
when  a  child  tells  an  untruth,  refuse  it  credence 
for  a  given  period.  Would  not  the  child  soon 
get  to  feel  that  it  was  of  little  moment  whether  it 
spcke  truth  or  falsehood,  since   the  consequences 


Truth,  85 

were  the  same  ?  And  would  not  a  bitter  sense  of 
injustice  and  anger  and  despair  rise  in  its  heart, 
to  the  shutting  out  of  any  germ  of  better 
life? 

A  different  result  follows  from  trusting  a  child. 
I  knew  a  little  girl  of  three  or  four  who  found  the 
first  frequent  use  of  her  tooth-brush  very  irksome, 
and  when  her  mother  one  day  asked  her  whether 
she  had  brushed  her  teeth,  answered  "  Yes,"  when 
she  had  neglected  the  duty.  Her  mother  believed 
her  as  ^  matter  of  course ;  but  the  child  imme- 
diately woke  to  a  sense  that  she  was  untruthful 
to  her  mother  who  trusted  her.  She  straightway 
ran  to  her  room  for  the  duty  she  hated,  and  after- 
wards fully  deserved  the  trust  she  had  abused.  I 
knew  a  French  cook  once  who,  after  living  two 
years  with  her  mistress,  said,  like  the  Rugby  boy 

of  Dr.  Arnold,  "  You  cannot  tell  lies  to  Mrs. , 

she  always  believes  you." 

Canon  Farrar,  in  the  course  of  a  lecture  de- 
livered at  Cambridge,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Teachers'  Training  Syndicate,  told  the  following 
story.  I  take  it  from  the  report  in  the  Journat 
of  Ediication  : — 

"  At  Harrow,  two  boys  brought  me  exercises, 
marked  by  the  same  grotesque  mistakes.  It 
seemed  certain  that  those  exercises  could  not 
have     been    done     independently.       Both    boys 


86    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

assured  me  that  there  had  been  no  copying.  One, 
whom  I  had  considered  a  boy  of  high  morale, 
assured  me  of  this  again  and  again  with  passionate 
earnestness.  I  said  to  him,  '  If  I  were  to  send  up 
those  two  exercises  to  any  jury  in  England,  they 
would  say  that  these  resemblances  could  not  be 
accidental,  except  by  something  almost  like  a 
miracle.  But  you  both  tell  me  that  you  have  not 
copied.  I  cannot  believe  you  would  lie  to  me  ; 
I  must  suppose  that  there  has  been  some  extra- 
ordinary accident.  I  shall  say  no  more.'  Years 
after,  that  boy,  then  a  monitor,  said  to  me,  '  Sir, 
do  you  remember  that  exercise  in  the  fourth 
form  ?  '  *  Yes,'  I  said.  *  Well,  sir,  I  told  you  a 
lie.  It  was  copied.  You  believed  me,  and  the 
remembrance  of  that  lie  has  remained  with  me, 
and  pained  me  ever  since.'  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  boy  was  more  effectually  taught,  and  more 
effectually  punished,  than  if  I  had  refused  to  ac- 
cept his  protest."  A  well-known  educationalist 
took  exception  in  the  next  number  of  the  Journal 
to  Dr.  Farrar's  treatment  of  the  boy.  But  I  think 
the  result  proved  that  his  judgment,  however 
painfully  tried,  was  fully  justified. 

But  again  and  yet  again  the  question  will  be 
pressed  upon  us,  "  If  ordinary  punishments  are 
useless  in  dealing  with  untruthfulness,  what  are 
we   to  do  }     All    children    cannot   come   into  our 


Truth.  8  7 

hands  free  of  the  taint  of  untruthfulness  ;  how  can 
we  make  a  liar  truthful  ?  for  it  is  not  to  be  borne 
that  he  remains  a  liar."  First  let  us  begin  by 
banishing  from  him  as  far  as  we  can  every  possible 
temptation  to  untruth,  whether  of  fear  or  desire ; 
foster  his  courage,  first  physically,  giving  him 
tone.  Then,  fear  being  withdrawn,  cultivate  his 
first  feeble  attempts  to  be  morally  courageous. 
Let  him  see  how  you  rejoice  in  his  efforts  to  be 
brave,  and  lead  him  from  one  step  to  another  in 
courage.  In  your  intellectual  teaching  impress 
him  with  the  majesty  of  truth,  and  let  him  feel  the 
heroism  of  those  men  and  women  who,  in  their 
simple  fidelity  to  an  abstract  idea,  have  chosen 
martyrdom  rather  than  the  gains  of  unfaithfulness. 
Lead  him  to  see  how  by  painful  labour  and  en- 
thusiastic devotion  investigators  and  discoverers 
have  added  grains  of  truth  to  the  sum  of  human 
knowledge.  But,  above  all,  address  yourself  to 
his  moral  nature ;  strengthen  in  it  the  seeds  of 
rectitude.  Hold  up  to  him  noble  standards  of 
life,  and  so  set  yourself  to  develop  the  goodness 
you  find  there,  that  the  weak,  the  cowardly,  the 
untrue  fades  away. 


88    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  CJiildren. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SOME    CARDINAL   VIRTUES.— LOVE. 

"  O'er  wayward  childhood  wouldst  thou  hold  firm  rule, 
And  sun  thee  in  the  light  of  happy  faces  ; 
Love,  Hope,  and  Patience,  these  must  be  thy  graces, 
And  in  thine  own  heart  let  them  first  keep  school." 

Coleridge. 

Few  things  in  ordinary  life  are  more  touching 
than  the  faith  shown  by  children  in  human  good- 
ness. I  suppose  that  foundlings  and  children 
from  bad  homes  must  be  deficient  in  it,  but  that  it 
is  widely  distributed  is  patent  to  us  all.  Persons 
have  little  virtue  indeed,  if  they  disappoint  this 
faith,  or  do  not  justify  the  appeal  made  to  them 
by  the  immaturity  and  dependence  of  childhood. 
The  child's  relation  to  its  parents  first  awakens 
this  trust.  At  a  few  weeks  old  it  begins  to  show 
happy  satisfaction  in  the  presence  of  its  mother, 
and  even  distinguishes  its  father  (who  does  not 
supply   its   physical   wants)   with  something  of  a 


Love.  89 

dawning  affection  ;  so  soon  does  the  young-  crea- 
ture put  out  the  feelers  of  its  love.  Members  of 
the  household,  especially  other  children  and  kin- 
dred with  a  family  voice,  or  resemblance  of  man- 
ner to  its  parents,  readily  engage  its  attention  ;  and 
thus  in  the  centre  of  family  life  tender  germs  of 
love  awake  and  grow,  and  show  promise  of  those 
intense  emotions  which  form  the  supreme  hap- 
piness or  misery  of  after-life — emotions  which 
should  widen  into  the  love  of  humanity,  and, 
stretching  beyond  the  visible  stimulants  of  feel- 
ing, expend  themselves  in  religious  admiration, 
and  love  of  the  unseen  Spirit  of  the  Universe. 
In  this  direction  again,  we  touch  in  earliest  edu- 
cation tiny  threads  which  stretch  beyond  the 
small  and  the  transitory  to  what  is  eternal. 

At  first  sight  it  seems  that  the  natural  exercise 
of  the  child's  affections  has  been  so  well  provided 
in  its  instinctive  love  for  its  parents,  and  in  the 
area  of  its  home,  that  the  educator  has  little  to  do 
in  developing  this  side  of  its  nature  ;  but  we  pre- 
sently discover  that  a  larger  capacity  of  emotion, 
a  finer  quality  of  feeling,  lies  within  our  power  of 
training.  Affection  can  never  be  purely  selfish, 
for  its  very  existence  demands  a  certain  surrender 
of  self  to  an  object  out  of  self  But  the  parental 
tie  in  its  rudimentary  form,  only  manifests,  in  com- 
mon with  the  mother  animals,  devotion,  protect- 


90    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

ing  care,  perhaps  passionate  attachment.  Guided 
by  neither  intellectual  perceptions  nor  moral  pur- 
poses, parents  alternately  caress  and  strike  their 
children,  and  behave  to  them  in  every  phase  of 
their  growth  with  similar  wants  of  consistency. 
The  higher  manifestations  of  the  parental  relation- 
ship can  only  be  attained  by  careful  self-restraint 
and  culture  ;  it  has  to  grow  fit  for  the  obliga- 
tions laid  on  it  by  thought,  by  insight,  by  stead- 
fast intention  ;  it  has  to  outgrow  the  selfishness  of 
love,  and  see  in  children,  not  objects  ministering 
to  the  gratification  of  its  affection,  but  put  under 
its  care  for  far  other  and  higher  purposes. 

In  children,  too,  we  have  first  to  take  care  that 
their  affections  grow  strong  and  healthy  ;  next, 
that  they  widen,  and  touch  in  sympathy  many 
points  of  life,  and  lead  in  aspiration  many  chords 
of  feellnof.  How  is  this  to  be  done  ?  It  is 
tacitly  but  universally  acknowledged,  that  while 
other  powers  of  the  child  may  grow  under  coercion, 
its  affections  must  develop  spontaneously,  or  not 
at  all.  As  a  oreneral  rule  I  think  it  is  considered 
of  no  great  consequence  if  they  do  not  develop. 
Those  who  believe  In  the  value  of  precepts  tell 
children  they  must  "  honour  their  father  and 
their  mother,"  that  "  Little  children  (must)  love 
one  another,"  and  so  on.  It  is  taken  for  granted, 
in  the  case  of  parents  at  least,  that  the  affection 


Love.  91 

of  the  child  for  them  should  spontaneously  follow 
the  demand  for  it.  But  the  sweet  Qrift  of  love  does 
not  come  in  obedience  to  a  command,  nor  as  a 
necessary  consequence  of  relationship,  and  though 
nature  is  beneficent  in  makinsf  the  first  tie  between 
parents  and  children  so  close  and  ready  for 
growth  and  further  development,  parents  must 
cultivate  these  germs  of  love,  and  earn  their  place 
with  their  ofrowingr  children. 

I  shall  shock  the  susceptibilities  of  some  parents 
in  saying  this,  but  I  think  upon  reflection  they 
will  agree  with  me.  They  will  recall  the  many 
cases  where  no  real  love,  no  actual  confidence, 
exists  between  children  and  their  parents  ;  cases 
where  obedience,  reverence,  the  happy  companion- 
ship which  friendship  creates,  are  all  absent,  and 
a  hollow  semblance  of  these  thinofs  shows  that  an 
acknowledgment  of  the  actual  truth  is  too  painful 
to  face. 

Love  begets  love ;  and  though  we  sometimes 
see  a  child  passionately  attacl\ed  to  those  who 
care  little  for  it,  this  is  an  exception  to  the  rule. 
Kisses,  caresses,  the  sweet  little  ways  in  which 
tender  fathers  and  mothers  give  relief  to  their  own 
feelings  of  happiness  in  their  children,  have  not 
only  deep  meaning,  but  real  educational  influence. 
They  do  their  part  in  creating  that  atmosphere  of 
warmth  and  love  in  which  the  tender  feelings  ex- 


Q2    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

pand  and  develop.  I  have  known  persons  of 
really  warm  hearts,  who  seemed  to  think  it  their 
duty  to  exercise  such  Puritan  self-restraint  of  feel- 
ing towards  their  children  as  to  make  their  home 
so  cold,  so  joyless,  so  irresponsive,  that  the  exist- 
ence of  "  sweetness  and  light "  there  seemed 
impossible.  Let  us  be  assured  that  as  plants  turn 
for  very  life  to  the  sun,  the  child  seeks  his  nurture 
in  love.  We  must  not  be  niggards  of  its  expres- 
sion. We  must  not  be  afraid  to  show  him  how 
much  we  love  him,  what  joy  his  presence  is  to 
us,  how  dear  is  the  return  of  his  love  to  us. 

Is  it  necessary,  in  saying  this,  to  guard  against 
the  confusion  of  ideas  which  commonly  prevails 
between  the  love  which  acts  with  constant  and 
conscientious  res^ard  to  the  moral  welfare  of  the 
child,  and  that  form  of  it  which,  being  chiefly 
selfish,  seeks  first  its  own  gratification  irrespective 
of  moral  considerations  ?  Under  the  sway  of  the 
first,  "  spoiling  "  is  almost  impossible  ;  under  that 
of  the  second,  it  i,s  nearly  unavoidable. 

In  conscious  and  unconscious  nurture  of  the 
affections,  we  intensify  the  natural  feeling  of  the 
child,  we  lead  its  growth,  but  we  reflect  what  he 
gives  us ;  he  is  happy  in  the  return  of  his  love. 
We  have  next  to  encourage  in  him  another  form 
of  the  affections,  where  he  will  get  little  or  no 
return  :  to  lead  him  to  love  those  who  have  no 


Love.  93 

natural  claim  upon  him,  in  a  word  to  cultivate  in 
him  the  "  social  "  affections.  In  this  direction  lie 
the  noblest  planes  of  moral  life,  in  which  the  indi- 
vidual feels  for  the  suffering,  the  joy,  the  welfare 
of  others  as  for  his  own  ;  and  would  project  his 
own  happiness  into  the  life  of  thousands  unknown 
to  him ;  or  in  self-sacrifice  lay  down  his  mortal 
life  that  others  may  truly  live.  To  the  little 
child  these  sublime  heights  of  life  are  veiled ;  but 
we,  his  guides,  who  see  them  dimly  afar  off,  shall 
fail  in  our  responsibility  to  him  if  we  do  not  lead 
him  by  gentlest  steps  on  the  shining  road  towards 
them. 

A  little  child  of  five  or  six  years  came  to  me 
one  day  with  a  tender  expression  on  her  face,  and 
said,  "  I  had  a  new  thought  in  the  village  just 
now  when  I  saw  the  girl  in  a  blue  hood  crying, 
I  thought  I  should  like  to  be  of  use  to  every  one 
in  the  world."  I  tried  to  show  her  that,  with  all 
our  wish,  this  was  impossible.  "  We  can  help  one 
at  a  time,  though,"  she  said,  "  and  that  is  many 
altogether."  Here  is  an  example  of  the  right 
chord  of  unselfish  feeling  being  struck ;  such 
vibrations  will  guide  us  in  our  educational  work. 

In  the  care  of  animals  we  shall  find  an  excel- 
lent instrument.  In  these  dumb  "  brothers  and 
sisters  "  of  his  race,  the  little  child  has  one  of  his 
earliest  and  best  interests.     In  their  activity,  their 


94    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

playfulness,  their  attachment,  the  child  finds  a 
part  of  the  living  world  at  once  at  the  level  of  his 
comprehension,  and  responsive  to  his  sympathy. 
The  home  of  every  child  should  provide  some 
animal  for  his  playfellow.  Whether  in  motion  or 
at  rest,  the  kitten,  a  bird,  even  a  guinea-pig,  will 
afford  abundant  scope  for  protracted  observation, 
and  the  needs  of  its  life  will  lead  affection  into 
active  kindness,  the  doing  something  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  a  livincj  thino^.  The  earliest  sense 
of  responsibility  will  grow  side  by  side  with  this 
affection  ;  and  though  it  is  unwise  to  rely  too  much 
on  this  sense  in  young  children,  as  their  protective 
care  of  animals  is  necessarily  apt  to  be  impulsive 
and  unreliable,  they  will  gradually  learn  in  the 
companionship  of  their  parents  the  importance  of 
feeding  the  cat,  or  of  giving  fresh  water  to  the 
bird.  Many  indirect  advantages  will  follow  the 
exercise  of  such  responsibility.  The  child  will 
learn  the  value  of  patience,  of  punctuality,  of  thrift 
in  the  care  of  animals.  He  will  not  need  experi- 
ence like  Maggie  Tulliver's  with  the  rabbits  com- 
mitted to  her  charge,  to  make  him  estimate  the 
importance  of  duties  towards  living  animals.  The 
sympathy  and  imagination  of  children  can  be 
easily  awakened  towards  their  dumb  companions, 
and  this  should  be  purposely  done  :  it  is  the  defi- 
ciency of  both  capacities  which  leads  them  to  the 


Love.  95 

cruelty  so  often  said  to  be  natural  to  children.^  I 
have  known  a  small  child  made  so  unhappy  by 
realizing  the  grief  of  a  mother  bird  robbed  of  her 
young,  that  she  could  not  be  pacified  until  the 
nest  was  restored  to  the  tree  whence  it  was  taken. 
I  know  another  child  who  grieved  intensely  for 
days  at  imagining  the  sufferings  of  her  foreign 
bird,  that  had  been  allowed  to  fly  out  of  the  room 
into  the  dangers  of  a  town  orarden.  The  mother 
will  encourage  this  sympathetic  imagination  by 
making  the  child  observe  that  his  gentle  offices 
are  needed  by  the  favourite  dog  who  requires  the 
door  opened,  or  water  given  him  when  he  cannot 
supply  either  want  himself. 

As  part  of  this  training,  little  children  who  live 
in  the  country  should  be  carefully  prevented  from 
knowing  anything  or  seeing  anything  of  the  neces- 
sary killing  of  animals.  Like  many  other  things 
in  life,  this  must  hurt  the  tender  susceptibilities 
of  children,  and  should  be  kept  from  their  cog- 
nizance until  other  considerations  can  put  it  in  its 
true  proportion.  A  boy  thus  guarded  will  shrink 
so  much  from  the  infliction  of  pain,  that  the  love 
of  sport,  in  after-years,  will  with  difficulty  over- 
come it. 

I  am  Inclined  to  think  that  tenderness  to  women 

^  "  Most  cruelty,  however,"  says  Lecky,  '*  springs  from  cal- 
lousness, which  is  simply  dulness  of  imagination." 


96    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

and  little  children  is  most  often  cherished  by 
gentleness  begun  to  dependent  animals ;  and 
thouofh  I  know  there  are  lovinof  men  and  women 
who  have  little  affection  for  them,  there  are  few  who 
are  notably  good  and  loving  to  animals  who  have 
not  special  kindness  for  dependants  of  higher  race. 

Educators  have  rarely  disregarded  the  duty  of 
calling  out  in  children  the  "  social  motives."  We 
all  remember  how  Mr.  Barlow  and  the  mothers 
and  fathers  in  Miss  Edgeworth's  stories,  rather 
ostentatiously  encouraged  the  relief  of  distress 
by  alms-giving.  The  study  of  Political  Economy 
has  somewhat  changed  and  widened  our  present 
ideas  of  philanthropy;  and  the  children  of  to-day 
are  not  incited  to  give  their  pennies  or  coats  to 
beggars.  At  the  same  time  we  generally  recog- 
nize that  little  children  can  only  understand 
charity  applied  to  individual  cases.  Larger  plans 
and  reforms  which  affect  individuals  in  masses,  is 
a  conception  of  active  kindness  which  appeals  to 
mature,  not  immature  life.  And  I  am  sorry  when 
I  see  the  names  of  children  in  the  lists  of  sub- 
scribers to  charities.  This  seems  to  me  a  prema- 
ture forcing  of  ideas,  which  is  unhealthy,  and 
likely  to  encourage,  not  a  wise  benevolence,  but 
rather  self- righteousness  and  vanity. 

The  social  affections  can  be  abundantly  exer- 
cised in  the  homes  of  most  children  ;  they  have 


Love. 


97 


little  or  no  property  to  give  away,  but  they  have 
as  real  possessions  their  thought,  their  activity, 
their  personal  trouble  to  use  in  the  service  of 
others.  Children  discover  the  value  of  these  eifts 
with  delight.  There  is  almost  always  in  the 
household  some  old,  some  very  young,  or  delicate 
person,  to  whom  such  service  is  acceptable. 
Even  the  saving  of  trouble  to  others,  fetching  or 
carrying,  running  errands  to  save  the  ringing  of 
the  bell,  is  the  small  giving  of  one's  self  for  the 
sake  of  others  ;  and  the  details  of  daily  life  should 
be  sanctified  by  this  idea,  so  that  it  becomes  as 
natural  to  the  child  to  live  for  others  as  to  seek 
his  own  pleasure  without  reference  to  them.  If 
we  have  to  deal  with  a  child  in  whom  the  selfish 
predominate  strongly  over  the  unselfish  motives 
of  action,  we  must  seek  in  the  remote  corners  of 
his  nature  for  some  regenerating  spark  of  feeling. 
We  may  find  it  in  reward  of  patient  search,  in  the 
child's  love  for  something  or  somebody ;  it  may  ^. 
lurk  even  in  a  love  of  approbation,  or  sensitiveness 
to  pain,  or  even  in  restless  activity.  However 
difficult  it  may  be  to  find  it,  we  cannot  but  believe 
the  germ  of  unselfish  life  exists,  and  that  even 
"the  poorest  poor"  in  spirit  can  be  brought 
to  become  "  the  givers  out  of  some  small  bless- 
ings." 

Hard  trials  often  come  to  little  children  in  their 

G 


98    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

intercourse  with  young  companions.  However 
much  they  enjoy  the  society  of  other  children, 
there  inevitably  comes  with  it  a  clashing  of  wills, 
the  rousing  of  anger,  perhaps  jealousy,  envy,  and 
other  forms  of  uncharitableness.  The  presence 
of  the  mother  or  of  some  older  companion  is 
necessary  to  smooth  matters  at  such  times.  Two 
children  desire  the  same  toy,  and  quarrel  over  the 
right  each  has  to  it.  The  mother  can  stop  the 
rising  indignation  and  sense  of  injustice,  by  a 
gentle  appeal  to  the  generosity  or  the  perception 
of  justice  in  the  children.  I  have  often  seen,  in 
such  cases,  both  children  melted  into  kindness, 
and  rivallinc:  each  other  in  their  willino-ness  toirive 
up  the  cherished  plaything.  In  well-trained  or 
finely-organized  children,  in  whom  the  social 
motives  are  as  strong  as  the  selfish,  the  mere 
appeal  for  the  claims  of  others  is  sufficient  to 
brinof  out  the  one  set  of  feelinors  and  abase  the 
other. 

Sympathy  is  to  the  moral  world  what  genius  is 
to  the  world  of  intellect ;  with  a  like  delicacy  of 
insight,  with  imagination,  and  impersonal  love,  it 
reads  the  secret  truth  of  lives  and  understands 
natures  wholly  different  from  itself.  It  is  so  fine 
an  attribute  that  it  seems  almost  a  gift  rather  than 
the  result  of  any  training.  But  as  educators  we 
must  assume  that  every  power  may  be  latent  in 


Love.  99 

the  child,  and  by  taking  for  granted  his  posses- 
sion of  it,  and  by  habitual  appeal  to  it,  we  shall 
doubtless  develop  more  or  less  of  answering  feel- 
ing. We  often  see  how  the  living  with  finely 
organized  persons,  sympathetic  themselves,  and 
looking  for  sympathy  in  others,  results  in  this  effect. 
One  of  the  most  powerful  influences,  however,  in 
the  cultivation  of  the  unselfish  side  of  the  child's 
nature  lies  in  the  ideals  of  benevolence  and  self- 
sacrifice  presented  to  him  in  literature  and  life. 
He  reads  of  the  labours  of  Howard  and  Mrs.  Fry 
in  prisons,  and  determines,  some  day  or  other,  to 
imitate  them  ;  or  he  is  moved  to  tears  over  the 
sufferino-s  of  noble  martvrs,  and  thrills  with  desire 
that  he  may  be  called  upon  for  similar,  though 
humbler  trial.  And  if  he  has  been  made  to  feel 
the  transcendent  beauty  of  Christ's  life,  he  will 
have  enshrined  in  his  mind  and  spirit  the  noblest 
example  of  perfect  love,  of  absolute  self-sacrifice 
by  which  to  shape  his  own  faltering  steps  in 
life. 


lOO   Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children, 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

SOME    CARDINAL  VIRTUES.  — OBEDIENCE    TO 
CONSCIENCE;  DUTY. 

"  And  through  the  heat  of  conflict,  keeps  the  law 
In  cahnness  made,  and  sees  what  he  foresaw." 

"  The  Happy  Warrior.'* 

"  To  hate  what  you  ought  to  hate,  and  love  what  you  ought 
to  love  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  .  .  .  this  will  be 
rightly  called  education." 

Plato's  Lmvs,  Book  II.  {/ozvett). 

The  various  theories  concernin'^  the  origin  and 
nature  of  the  conscience  do  not  greatly  affect 
our  work  of  practical  education.  Whether  the 
instinct  we  call  conscience  is  innate  to  human 
nature,  or  is  inherited  from  generations  who  have 
lived  in  obedience  to  their  moral  sense  ;  whether  it 
is  a  swift  act  of  the  judgment  dividing  right  from 
wrong,  or  is  the  result  of  authority  or  punish- 
ment,^  it  is    a   power   in   the    nature   of   children 

1  "  I  have  given  it  as  my  deHberate  opinion,  that  authority 
or  punishment  is  the  commencement  of  that  state  of  mind 


Obedierice  to  Conscience.  loi 

which,  sooner  or  later,  faces  us,  and  with  which 
we  are  bound  to  deal.  And  we  appeal  to  it  almost 
involuntarily  from  the  earliest  moments  when  the 
child  begins  to  exercise  independent  action.  We 
find  ourselves  saying,  even  to  an  infant,  "  You 
must  not  do  this,"  "  You  must  try  to  be  good." 
This  appeal,  half-conscious  as  it  is,  joined  with  the 
conscious  moral  training  which  is  prompted  by 
our  own  allegiance  to  a  standard  of  right,  sets  up 
boundaries  round  the  child's  life.  He  gradually 
learns  there  are  some  things  he  ought  to  do,  some 
that  he  ought  not  to  do ;  lines  of  simple  morality 
are  marked  out,  all  the  influences  of  his  little  life 
lead  him  gradually  to  form  a  standard  of  right 
which  will  be  ready  for  guidance  in  a  time  of  need. 
While  life  is  easy,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  the  child 
to  do  what  is  required  of  him,  this  time  of  need 
will  be  postponed;  the  conscience — "the  some- 
thing in  our  bodies,"  as  a  little  girl  of  six  once 
put  it  to  me,  "  which  tells  us  when  we  are  doino- 
right  or  wrong," — will  remain  latent.  But  with 
the  growth  of  the  child,  and  the  increase  of  his 
powers,  conflicts  will  arise  between  his  inclination 
and  the  sense  of  right  we  have  been  quietly 
nurturing ;  some  power  must  decide  between  the 

recognized  under  the  various  names,  conscience,  the  moral 
sense,  the  sentiment  of  obligations." — Bain  on  the  ^^Enwlions 
and  Wilir 


I02    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

two,  and  assig-ii  the  victory.^  In  this  power  we 
recognize  a  force  which,  if  respected,  will  both 
"guide  and  govern  life."  For  if  we  once  "  admit 
that  the  conscience  is-that  in  a  man  which  points 
to  what  is  above  him,  which  declares  the  supremacy 
of  a  right  that  he  did  not  mould,  and  cannot 
alter,"  ^  we  shall  accept  the  decrees  of  this  power 
as  binding.  That  "  right,"  whether  accepted  as 
representing  the  will  of  a  perfect  and  loving  Spirit, 
or  laws  which  may  or  may  not  interpret  this 
power,  lays  obligations  on  us.  Various  impulses 
of  love,  imagination,  judgment,  also  suggest  pos- 
sible duties.  The  conscience  reviews  these  with 
her  clear  vision,  and  decides  whether  they  ought 
or  ought  not  to  be  adopted  as  part  of  the  obliga- 
tions of  our  lives.  And  if  moral  excellence  is  the 
final  aim  of  true  education,  our  labour  of  train- 
ing must  be  in  a  fair  way  of  success  wdien  we 
arrive  at  any  period  of  that  training,  and  see  the 

^  "  Ri'j;ht  conduct  is  felt  to  be  something  which  we  are  not 
free  to  do  or  not  to  do,  but  which  imposes  itself  on  us  with 
the  force  of  some  authority.  It  includes  a  distinct  reference  to 
a  law  or  command  outside  of  us,  to  which  we  owe  allegi.ince 
or  ( onformity  ;  whether  conceived  as  imposed  and  enforced  by 
a  human  or  by  a  Divine  will;  or  regarded  in  a  more  abstract 
manner  as  something  independent  of  all  personal  volitions,  a 
law  imposed  by  the  very  nature  of  things." — -James  Sully: 
"  Outlines  of  Psychology. ^^ 

^  Maurice  on  the  "  Conscience." 


Obedience  to  Conscience.  103 

young  human  being  accepting  in  a  large  and 
fine  sense  the  obhgations  naturally  imposed  upon 
him. 

In  notes  which  treat  only  of  the  early  train- 
ing of  children,  I  can  but  indicate  what  belongs 
to  a  period  beyond  that  I  am  dealing  with,  and 
show  how  the  foundation  is  to  be  laid  for  that 
excellence  of  character  which  should  crown  the 
humble  educational  labours  of  every  day.  The 
chief  training:  of  the  conscience  belonofs  to  that 
more  distant  period.  With  young  children  it 
must  be  so  gentle,  so  almost  imperceptible,  that 
we  keep  latent  the  very  power  we  are  strengthen- 
ing. I  reiterate  that  the  aim  of  all  our  early 
training  must  be  to  develop  the  child's  nature  in 
such  a  manner,  that  he  loves  goodness,  and  finds 
it  not  only  most  pleasant,  but  most  easy  and 
natural  to  do  right ;  and  our  success  in  this  first 
duty  will  be  shown  in  the  postponement  of  the 
time  of  difficulty,  of  struggle  and  conflict.  Typi- 
cal childhood  means  this  postponement  of  op- 
posing desires,  of  imperative  obligations  ;  a  time 
when  the  stern  duties  of  life  lie  in  the  distance, 
and  the  young  human  creature  shares  the  enjoy- 
ment of  other  young  animals,  and  rejoices  with 
all  nature  in  existence  and  development.  It 
would  be  too  much  to  hope  that  during  this 
period  there  will  be  no  conflict  of  inclination  and 


I04    Notes  on  the  Eai'ly  Training  of  Children. 

higher  obligation ;  but  our  object  should  be  to 
defer  the  time  of  questioning  and  doubt,  to  let 
the  child's  nature  remain  quiescent  as  far  as  may 
be.  It  is  possible  to  imagine  that  even  adults 
in  a  higher  plane  of  existence  may  live  without 
conflict  between  the  higher  and  lower  impulses 
of  their  nature,  and  will  always  spontaneously 
choose  the  rioht  and  act  it.  Conflict  between 
right  and  wrong  has  its  nobility,  it  is  necessary 
and  beautiful,  but  only  as  a  means  to  an  end.  The 
activity  of  the  conscience,  aroused  by  conflict,  in- 
volves self-consciousness  and  self-contemplation, 
and  although  some  periods  of  growth  seem  to 
originate  in  these  mental  states,  I  am  inclined  to 
believe  they  shut  out  the  highest  aspects  of  truth, 
which  we  apprehend  when  self  is  held  most  quies- 
cent, and  are  detrimental  to  healthy  growth  in  the 
very  young. 

We  must  rejoice,  then,  when  the  little  child 
remains  in  the  period  of  childhood  as  long  as 
possible.  During  this  time  his  parents,  their 
standard  of  right  for  him,  their  wishes,  may  form 
his  external  conscience.  This  can  only  happen 
when  the  sympathy  is  strong  between  parents 
and  children,  and  when  the  education  has  been 
wise  ;  but  as  the  result  of  these  conditions  it  is  a 
beautiful  aspect  and  effect  of  training.  The  child 
has   absolute   faith    that   his    parents   know    the 


Obedience  to  Conscience.  105 

right,  and  he  accepts  the  decrees  made  for  him 
without  question.  It  is  enough  for  him  that 
"  mother  wishes  me  to  do  this ; "  or  "  father 
says  I  must  not  do  that."  There  is  no  conflict, 
no  unhealthy  self-consciousness,  in  this  sort  of 
conscientiousness.  The  appeal  to  his  parents 
is  for  the  time  infallible ;  and,  guided  by  their 
obedience  to  duty,  he  learns,  step  by  step,  alle- 
giance to  moral  obligations.  I  have  known  little 
children  accept  this  direction  so  entirely,  that  no 
absence  of  their  parents,  no  temptations,  had 
power  to  make  it  falter.  They  have  often  denied 
themselves  even  harmless  gratification,  in  their 
scrupulous  desire  to  be  faithful  to  the  duty  they 
believed  was  expected  of  them. 

Under  such  guidance  the  child's  appreciation 
of  moral  law  becomes  stronger,  and  he  gradually 
begins  to  interpret  it  for  himself,  and  apply  it  in 
practice.  The  relinquishment,  however,  of  the 
standard  and  conscience  of  his  parents  for  his 
own  is  so  Imperceptible,  that  we  can  scarcely 
mark  it ;  the  one  fades  before  the  other,  and  at 
some  time  the  child  shows  us,  often  to  our  sur- 
prise, that  he  has  learned  his  lesson,  that  his  own 
sense  of  right  is  awakened,  that  his  conscience  is 
no  longer  latent,  but  ready  to  guide  him.  Our 
training  has  led  up  to  this  time,  and  it  is  reason- 
able   to    expect    the    activity     of    this    nascent 


io6    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

faculty,  in  common  with  all  the  other  powers  of 
the  child  ;  and  yet  it  is  essential,  I  think,  for 
its  healthy  growth  that  it  should  be  allowed  to 
develop  only  in  its  own  time  and  fashion.  Every- 
thing like  over-stimulus  must  be  avoided.  I  know 
there  are  excellent  parents  who  consistently  try 
to  stimulate  the  conscience  of  their  children,  and 
strive  to  render  their  young  lives  governed  chiefly, 
if  not  wholly,  by  its  rule.  Perhaps  most  of  us 
have  witnessed  scenes  where  childish  faults  have 
been  magnified  under  such  a  system,  where  re- 
peated efforts  have  been  made  to  cause  a  child 
to  come  to,  or  at  least  to  acknowledge,  a  sense 
of  wronof-doinor.  Our  hearts  have  ached  to  see 
the  continued  punishments,  the  confinement,  the 
meals  of  bread  and  water,  or  blows,  to  get  the 
confession  of  a  lie,  or  repentance,  as  it  is  called, 
for  an  act  of  insubordination  or  disobedience  ; 
wliile  on  the  part  of  the  offender  we  have  seen 
pride,  anger,  shame,  obstinacy,  all  rise  up  to 
meet  the  irrational  and  mistaken  discipline,  and 
we  have  been  left  doubtful  whether  the  conscience 
itself  has  ever  been  really  touched.  These 
parents,  in  their  efforts  to  make  their  children 
virtuous  and  pious,  are  trj-ing  to  awaken  in  them 
a  state  of  feeling  belonging  to  their  own  mature 
age,  when  every  word  and  deed  is  governed  by 
the  severe  rule  of  the  conscience. 


Obedience  to  Conscience.  107 

We  learn  in  Dr.  Arnold's  biography  that  "  one 
of  the  chief  questions  on  which  his  mind  was 
constantly  at  work,"  in  face  of  the  difficulties  of 
moral  training  in  public  school  life,  was  (Serm. 
vol.  iv,  p.  19),  "  Can  the  change  from  childhood 
to  manhood  be  hastened  without  prematurely 
exhausting  the  faculties  of  body  or  mind  ? " 
His  biographer  adds,  "In  the  judgment  of  some 
he  was  disposed  to  answer  too  readily  in  the 
affirmative."  The  same  question,  framed  to 
suit  a  younger  age  than  those  Rugby  boys,  is 
constantly  presenting  itself  to  other  educators, 
and  it  is  too  frequently  answered  practically  by 
attempts  to  antedate  development.  In  the 
dilemma  between  the  necessary  exercise  of  the 
moral  sense,  and  the  danger  of  its  over-stimulus, 
what  course  can  we  pursue  ?  I  am  well  aware  of 
the  difficulty  of  this  part  of  our  parental  labours, 
and  that  we  must  depend  greatly  on  our  educa- 
tional instincts  and  our  reverence  for  the  child's 
nature,  for  guidance  in  the  matter.  Under  this 
direction  we  shall  find  abundant  material  for  the 
exercise  of  the  child's  moral  nature,  whether  he 
is  living  under  the  influence  of  his  parents'  con- 
science, or  has  himself  awakened  to  feel  his  own 
moral  power.  Were  the  life  of  little  children  less 
natural,  less  free  from  affectation,  we  might  often 
imagine  they  had  been  born  moral  philosophers, 


To8    Notes  on  the  Early  T^'aining  of  CJiildren. 

with  a  mission  to  investigate  and  settle  difficult 
questions  in  ethics,  for  their  interest  is  prone  to 
wander  from  the  small  examples  of  right  and 
wrong  in  conduct  immediately  before  them,  to 
abstract  problems.  Every  one  who  lives  sympa- 
thetically with  little  children  is  aware  of  this  ten- 
dency in  them.  And  this  freshness  of  interest  is 
probably  one  of  the  appointed  means  of  educa- 
tion for  their  moral  nature.  If  we  mentally  for- 
mulate the  manner  in  which  the  conscience  should 
ultimately  develop,  we  shall  recognize  that  its 
perception  of  the  right  must  be  prompt  and  ready, 
while  it  is  not  morbidly  susceptible  ;  swift  and 
unerring  in  its  decision,  resting  upon  judgment 
which  is  cultivated  and  balanced,  and  feelings 
made  delicate  and  strong  through  love — love  for 
others,  love  of  ideas.  These  qualities  cannot  be 
of  speedy  or  of  early  growth,  although  they  are 
the  fruit  of  gradual  development.  Following 
upon  the  perception  of  the  right,  "  the  moral 
feeling  thus  touches  the  springs  of  the  will,  and 
instantly  sets  it  in  movement.  To  see  and  feel 
what  is  wrong  in  ourselves  or  another,  is  to  shrink 
from  it.  The  thought  of  what  is  good,  morally 
worthy  and  noble,  is  immediately  attended  with 
an  impulse  of  desire  or  aspiration."^ 

'   "  Outlines  of  Tsychol'f;)',"  p.  556. 


Obedience  to  Conscience,  109 

When  the  child  is  ready  to  take  this  second 
step  in  moral  training,  he  becomes  obedient  to  the 
moral  law,  yielding  up,  if  need  be,  to  its  demands, 
personal  inclination,  comfort,  pleasure.  But  this 
obedience  can  only  be  shadowed  forth  in  the 
life  of  the  little  child.  His  conception  of  duty  is 
happily  proportioned  to  the  level  of  all  his  powers, 
and  it  is  only  as  life  advances  that  the  sense  of 
obligation  grows  with  the  growth  of  the  whole 
nature,  and  seeks  not  only  to  fulfil  claims,  but  to 
assume  fresh  yokes  and  burdens  of  duty. 

The  highest  development  of  the  conscience  is 
attained  when  this  larger  conception  of  obligation 
is  reached,  and  the  individual  becomes  a  factor 
in  the  world  of  morality.  Towards  this  final  and 
ideal  development,  then,  we  have  to  work.  And 
we  shall  best  attain  our  end,  I  think,  by  using 
means  as  impersonal  to  the  child  (if  I  may  use 
the  expression)  as  possible.  Fill  his  soul  with 
ideals  of  moral  life,  lead  his  imagination  to  dwell 
on  them,  his  love  for  goodness  will  cling  to  them, 
and  he  will  approach  them  by  almost  insensible 
degrees.  In  the  literature  used  by  the  child 
every  day  of  his  life,  we  shall  find  abundant 
material  for  the  impersonal  exercise  of  his  judg- 
ment, the  awakening  of  his  feelings  in  morality. 
In  the  simple  scenes  of  life  represented  in  good 
stories  for   children,  their  indignation   is    moved 


I  lo    Notes  on  the  Early  Trjining  of  Children. 

by  wrong'-doing",  their  enthusiasm  is  roused  by 
heroism  or  patient  virtue,  far  more  strongly  than 
in  their  elders,  to  whom  riQ:ht  and  wrone  are 
not  such  fresh  problems.  The  actual  experience 
of  children  is  naturally  very  limited,  and  one 
of  the  intense  fascinations  to  them  of  suitable 
literature  consists  in  the  enlarged  horizon  it 
affords  them,  I  have  known  children  apply  the 
lessons  taken  in  this  way  from  books  with  wonder- 
ful clear-sightedness. 

A  little  girl  of  six  or  seven  was  talking  to  me 
about  some  mammas  she  had  read  of,  who  "  tell 
their  children  some  thincrs  that  are  not  true,  to 
please  them."  "  G.'s  mamma,"  for  instance,  who 
"  told  her  a  little  bird  would  fly  out  of  the  curtain  ; 
but  it  wouldn't,  you  know.  I  don't  like  such 
mammas,"  she  added  ;  "  they  may  be  very  com- 
fortable and  agreeable  mammas,  but  I  don't  like 
them  when  they  say  such  things  !  "  The  same 
little  girl  had  been  interested  in  a  French  book 
which  had  been  read  to  her  and  her  sisters,  and 
said  after  it  had  been  finished,  "  I  hope  you'll  get 
us  another  story  like  it  :  we  like  it  so  much  better 
than  'Sophie.'  'Sophie'  is  for  lilllc  children:  it 
shows  them  how  they  get  punished  when  they 
don't  'bey  their  mammas  ;  because,  you  see  "  (with 
much  gesticulation),  "Sophie's  mamma  told  her 
she  must  not  go  into  the  lime  :  but  when  Sophie 


Obedience  to  Conscience.  1 1 1 

went  into  the  yard  she  said  to  herself,  '  What 
beautiful  lime!  I  must  walk  through  it!'  and  she 
was  nearly  burned."  "  But,"  I  said,  "  do  you 
think  you  don't  want  showing  that  you  should 
obey  your  mother?"  "Oh,  no,"  R.  said,  with 
much  quiet  scorn  at  the  question  ;  "  we  know  we 
must,  but  it's  only  httle  children  like  baby  who 
want  showing." 

A  child,  after  being  strongly  moved  by  the 
Parable  of  the  Talents,  said  to  me,  "  I  have  been 
thinking  a  great  deal  to-day  about  the  '  talents  : ' 
I  mean  to  try  and  use  my  talent  well." 
'  I  had  been  reading  with  my  own  children  some 
story  about  obligations,  and  in  the  course  of 
conversation  upon  it  afterwards,  asked  whether 
they  thought  grown-up  people  really  could  do 
what  they  liked.  "  No,"  said  one  of  them,  "'cos 
they've  got  duties." 

In  proportion  to  the  faithfulness  with  which  we 
have  carried  out  the  principles  of  early  training 
laid  down  in  these  "  Notes,"  will  be  the  value  of 
the  impersonal  exercise  of  the  conscience.  For 
in  this  proportion  will  be  habits  of  "  unconscious 
goodness"  in  our  children,  and  their  freedom 
from  faults.  In  association  with  other  children, 
also,  they  will  learn  many  practical  examples  of 
moral  teachinor.  Parents  who  arranore  as  far  as 
they  can  all  the  influences  which   affect  the  early 


1 1 2    Notes  071  the  Early  Trainmg  of  Children. 

life  of  their  children,  will  take  special  care  as  to 
the  character  of  their  young  companions  ;  but,  let 
the  care  be  ever  so  great,  it  often  happens  that 
the  society  of  associates  introduces  quite  new 
elements  into  the  atmosphere  of  the  children, 
suggesting  fresh  problems  in  morals.  It  is  well 
when  these  are  brought  to  the  mother  for  dis- 
cussion or  solution  :  but  I  have  known  cases  of 
undesirable  influences  set  to  work  amongst  chil- 
dren  by  their  companions,  which  were  not  dis- 
cussed with  the  mother  because  they  were  con- 
sidered too  trivial  or  absurd.  It  behoves  mothers 
to  be  especially  watchful  of  new  influences  upon 
their  children. 

It  has  been  nobly  said,  "  Without  hope  there  is 
a  thing  called  duty."  It  is  this  feeling  of  the 
supremacy,  the  steadfast  support  of  duty  through 
all  the  changes  and  troubles  of  life,  we  must 
inculcate  in  our  children,  and  Chatham's  words 
even  to  the  young  may  sometimes  prove  a  blessed 
remembrance.  Times  of  intense  depression  come 
to  all  human  beings,  ev-en  to  those  full  of  faith 
and  hope  and  strength.  The  light  of  the  sun  is 
hidden,  joy  is  gone  from  the  daily  life,  long  de- 
votion to  duty,  perhaps,  has  exhausted  the  very 
springs  of  patience  and  energy,  and  life  is  not 
worth  living.  At  such  times  the  poor  human 
creature   is  like  a  shipwrecked   sailor,  who  sees 


Duty.  1 1 3 

one  only  chance  of  recovering  a  hold  on  life,  of 
realizinor  arain  the  faith  and  trust  that  lie  for  the 
moment  dormant.  That  hold  is  something  that 
7nust  be  done — that  he  must  do,  and  if  he  clings 
to  the  obligation  even  blindly,  helplessly,  it  will 
lead  him  into  quieter  waters ;  he  will  presently 
feel  the  ground  again  beneath  his  feet,  he  will 
again  feel  his  patience  revive,  he  will  see  the 
flowers  bloom  once  more  in  the  sunlight  :  the 
springs  of  his  life  will  be  renewed,  and  existence 
will  grow  full  and  sweet  and  radiant  with  God's 
grace.  We  may  indeed  be  thankful  if  our  train- 
ing results  in  a  moral  fibre  which  resists,  and 
grows  above  such  common  shocks ;  but  we  shall 
demand  yet  more  of  our  child.  It  is  not  enough 
that  his  conscience  makes  him  strong  to  bear, 
we  expect  that  it  will  make  him  strong  to  do. 
We  shall  not  be  content  if  the  "  right,"  to  him, 
as  he  grows  onward  to  man's  estate,  means  the 
current  morality  of  his  generation,  in  views  of 
trade,  politics,  social  ethics.  In  accordance  with 
our  training,  we  shall  demand  higher  conceptions 
of  his  duty.  These,  as  the  outcome  of  the  whole 
being,  necessarily  partake  of  the  character  of  that 
being.  If  his  nature  includes  deep  and  warm 
affections,  if  his  imagination  is  active,  his  intellect 
enlightened,  his  conceptions  of  duty  will  be  broad, 
and  wise,  and  sympathetic,  and  he  will  enter  into 

II 


114    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

the  life  of  his  time  under  their  guidance.  He 
will  not  be  satisfied  with  the  grudging  employ- 
ment of  one  talent ;  ten  talents  may  be  given 
him,  and  he  will  use  them  with  loving  eagerness, 
"  as  ever  in  (the)  great  Task-master's  eye." 
His  conceptions  of  duty  will  enlarge  with  every 
increase  of  moral  and  intellectual  elevation,  his 
love  and  power  of  activity  will  grow,  and  he  will 
see  with  truer  eyes  how  desired  ends  can  be 
attained. 

If  he  has  a  spark  of  the  genius  of  the  seer, 
the  artist,  the  reformer,  the  philanthropist,  in  him, 
he  will  acknowledge  a  constantly  enlarging  circle 
of  obligations,  and,  fulfilling  faithfully  the  duties 
claimed  in  the  intimate  relations  of  family  life,  he 
will  not  be  content  without  movingr  influences 
which  affect  far  larger  areas.  And  in  following 
his  ideas  of  duty,  the  opinion  of  others,  of  the  so- 
called  "world,"  will  not  disturb  his  steps,  for  in 
the  under-current  of  his  life  will  abide  the  know- 
ledge that — 

"Let  thy  gliost  thee  lede  ; 
And  iroulhe  ihtc  shall  deliver,  it  is  no  dieJe." 


Rewards  and  Punishments.  1 1 5 


CHAPTER  IX. 
REWARDS  AND  PUNISHMENTS. 

"  The  best  way  of  training  the  young  is  to  train  yourself  at 
the  same  time;  not  to  admonish  them,  but  to  be  alvvay  carry- 
ing out  your  own  principles  in  practice." 

Flatds  Laws,  Book  V.  {Jowctt). 

We  very  rarely,  if  ever,  see  education  emanci- 
pated from  the  conventional  ideas  of  reward  and 
punishment.  Moralists  and  experience  teach  that 
obedience  to  the  moral  and  physical  laws  govern- 
ing the  universe  is  followed  by  happiness,  disobe- 
dience by  pain,  and  this  teaching  has  so  affected 
educational  practice,  that  extraneous  reward  and 
punishment  have  come  to  be  considered  an  integral 
part  of  the  training  of  children. 

Most  educators  would  a^jree  that  children 
should  be  educated  from  their  earliest  life  in  such 
a  way  as  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  punishment, 
that  this  at  least  is  the  ideal  to  be  striven  for ;  but 
whether  from  "inherited  defects,"  or  the  bad  early 


1 1 6    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

training  of  children,  the  majority  will  consider 
such  a  standard  of  moral  education  as  impossible. 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  states  that  "  any  ideal 
system  of  discipline  is  hopeless.  Parents  are  not 
good  enough."  Nor  are  the  children.  "We  are 
not,"  he  says,  "  among  those  who  believe  in  Lord 
Palmerston's  doo-ma,  that  '  all  children  are  born 
good.'  On  the  whole,  the  opposite  dogma,  un- 
tenable as  it  is,  seems  to  us  less  wide  of  the 
truth."  He  lays  great  stress  on  the  "inherit- 
ance of  defects  by  children  in  the  average  of 
cases." 

The  only  discussion  which  appears  allowable,  is 
the  mode  of  punishing  or  rewarding.  The  ordinary 
use  of  both  is  seldom  anything  but  empirical. 
Educators  have  but  vague  ideas  how  "  moral 
excellence  "  (the  chief  aim  of  all  education)  is  to 
be  attained.  They  agree  that  wrong-doing  must 
be  followed  by  pain,  right  by  pleasure  ;  but  how 
the  arbitrary  administration  of  either  can  effect 
desired  changes,  is  scarcely  analyzed. 

The  traditional  methods  are  those  used  in  the 
hope  that  they  will  produce  the  expected  result. 
And  what  arc  these  } 

The  stern  doctrines  of  the  Old  Testament  have 
maintained  a  strong  inOuence  in  the  bringing  up 
of  the  young.  "  Chasten  thy  son  while  there  is 
hope  ;  and  let  not  thy  soul  spare  for  his  crying." 


Rewards  and  Punishments.  117 

"  Thou  shalt  beat  him  with  the  rod,  and  shalt 
dehver  his  soul  from  hell."  And  this  idea  of 
saving  the  soul  by  the  pain  of  the  body,  gratifies 
so  naturally  the  imperfect  impulses  of  most 
educators,  that  we  find  it  believed  in,  and 
practised,  not  only  by  those  who  are  ignorant  and 
passionate,  but  by  all  grades  of  educators  and  for 
all  kinds  of  faults. 

Corporal  punishment  is  given  in  anger  when 
it  must  seem  to  the  child  as  a  consequence  of 
personal  annoyance  or  indignation,  or  it  is  dealt 
out  with  judicial  calmness  and  deliberation,  when 
it  must  be  necessarily  more  impressive.  A  child 
at  an  elementary  school  cannot  do  his  sums  ;  his 
hands  are  caned  by  the  teacher.  Why  ?  to  make 
him  see  an  intellectual  problem  with  more  acute- 
ness  ?  Another  child  disturbs  his  father  by  making 
a  noise  when  quiet  is  necessary  ;  he  is  sternly  told 
to  be  quiet,  but  he  presently  forgets  the  command, 
and,  busy  in  his  own  way,  repeats  the  annoyance. 
The  father  takes  it  for  granted  he  intended  to  be 
disobedient,  and  boxes  his  ear.  A  little  girl  breaks 
into  open  rebellion  against  her  governess,  or,  be- 
lieving that  some  injustice  is  done  her,  bursts 
into  a  tempest  of  passion.  Both  are  met  by 
sharp  blows,  or  by  banishment  to  bed,  with  hun- 
ger, for  the  remainder  of  "he  day.  A  boy  tells  a 
lie  to  his  mother,  or  deceives  her  by  pretending 


1 1 8    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

to  go  to  school  and  absenting  himself;  or,  with 
confused  ideas,  takes,  as  his  own,  some  property 
of  his  parents.  A  "  sound  flogging "  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  means  of  teaching  him  the 
value  of  truth  and  the  rights  of  property.  A 
little  sister  is  found  by  another  child  an  incon- 
venient competitor  for  toys,  and  she  slaps  her  to 
remove  her  out  of  the  way.  Her  mother  slaps 
the  offender  by  way  of  teaching  her  kindness  to 
her  sister.  There  does  not  seem  much  sequence 
between  this  kind  of  punishment  and  these  typical 
offences — between  disobedience  and  the  tinHinof 
of  a  blow,  untruth  and  insubordination  and  a 
larger  dose  of  physical  pain.  The  pain  is  believed 
to  be  strongly  deterrent  in  its  effects,  and  that 
is  held  to  be  sufficient.  Outward  conformity  to 
established  rules  of  order  can  at  least  generally 
be  attained,  and  there  is  hope  that  some  inward 
change  of  the  volition  follows  upon  the  outward 
conformity.  Much  questioning  as  to  the  actual 
effects  of  physical  pain  on  the  moral  nature  is 
useless  and  undesirable.  If  the  corporal  punish- 
ment proves  less  efficacious  as  a  deterrent  than  is 
expected,  educators  trusting  in  it  are  very  much 
at  a  loss. 

I  know  that  one  of  the  common  arcfuments  in 
favour  of  corporal  punishment  over  those  that 
appeal  more  directly  to  the   moral   sense  of  the 


Rewards  and  Puniskmenis,  119 

offenders,  is  that  it  is  healthily  restricted  in  its 
effects,  and  can  leave  behind  it  no  morbid  sense 
of  wrong,  no  irritating  self-measure.  The  child 
has  done  wrong,  it  has  paid  for  it  in  physical 
pain,  and  the  memory  of  the  pain  will  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  the  offence. 

I  doubt  whether  the  account  is  so  easily  set- 
tled. Physical  violence  is  hurtful  to  the  moral 
nature ;  it  rouses  as  a  rule  opposing  physical 
violence  and  fear,  and  too  often  leaves  in  the 
mind  of  the  victim  a  sense  of  injustice  or  anger 
and  hatred,  instead  of  a  true  repentance.  In 
David  Copperfield's  history  of  his  relation  with 
his  step-father,  we  have  a  sad  and  touching 
account  of  punishment  which  had  these  effects, 
with  the  yearning  for  the  active  influence  of  love, 
which  he  instinctively  felt  would  have  brought 
opposite  spiritual  results.  Boys,  in  talking  of  their 
school-life,  will  tell  you,  as  another  effect,  that 
they  get  so  callous  to  the  indignity  and  shame  of 
physical  chastisement,  that  it  produces  no  other 
result  than  to  make  them  rather  glory  in  bearing 
it  with  decent  courage.  They  grow  to  prefer  it 
to  tasks,  and  other  modes  of  punishment,  because 
it  is  soonest  over. 

When  education  is  better  understood,  there  is 
little  doubt  that  corporal  punishment  will  be  con- 
sidered singularly  irrational  and  unphilosophical, 


1 20    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

and  that  educators  will  then  seek  and  find 
intellectual  and  moral  means  for  producing  intel- 
lectual and  moral  results. 

The  theory  which  advocates  those  punishments 
which  are  the  "  true  consequences  "  of  conduct, 
seems  a  far  more  reasonable  guide.  But  it  is 
reasonable  within  very  narrow  limits.  It  is  impos- 
sible, as  I  have  shown  elsewhere,  that  the  theory 
as  lately  expounded  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  can 
be  carried  out  with  logical  consistency.  "It  is 
the  function  of  parents,"  he  says,  "  to  see  that 
their  children  habitually  experience  the  true  con- 
sequences of  their  conduct — -the  natural  reactions  ; 
neither  warding  them  off,  nor  multiplying  them, 
nor  putting  artificial  consequences  in  place  of 
them." 

In  some  cases,  no  doubt,  it  is  possible  to  let 
a  child  learn  the  value  of  judgment  and  foresight 
by  allowing  her  to  choose  a  wonderful  "  purple 
jar "  instead  of  a  useful  pair  of  walking  shoes  ; 
but  I  have  never  read  Miss  Edgeworth's  story 
without  bitter  resentment  against  the  cruelty  of 
Rosamond's  mother ;  and  I  think  most  readers 
of  to-day  will  agree  with  me,  that  the  child's 
love  for  her  mother,  and  faith  in  her  wisdom 
and  goodness  were  dangerously  jeopardized  by 
such  a  lesson  in  the  smaller  and  self- regarding 
virtues. 


Rewards  and  Punishments,  121 

This  theory  of  punishment  is,  however,  sup- 
ported by  the  child's  sense  of  its  justice.  If  the 
noisy  child,  just  now  cited,  had  been  sent  to 
play  in  a  cold  room  by  himself;  if  the  untruth- 
ful boy  were  to  be  steadily  disbelieved  until 
he  became  convinced  that  it  was  bad  policy  to 
tell  or  to  act  lies  ;  or  the  juvenile  communist  had 
had  his  own  jacket  or  toys  taken  away  from,  him, 
the  children  would  have  received  some  ideas, 
however  crude,  of  the  moral  laws  they  had  dis- 
regarded. The  question  to  be  considered  is,  at 
what  cost  would  these  ideas  have  been  gained  ? 
We  cannot  safely  deal  with  one  part  of  the  child's 
character  in  the  giving  of  our  lessons  without 
relation  to  the  whole,  and  if  we  act  to  the  child  as 
he  has  acted  to  others,  will  not  his  faith  in  our 
goodness,  his  reliance  on  our  judgment,  his  ideas 
of  right  and  wrong,  receive  a  serious  shock,  which 
no  minor  advantage  will  counterbalance  ? 

But  if  we  discard  both  thes'e  modes  of  punish- 
ment, what  help  can  we  get  in  our  task  of  training 
moral  excellence  in  the  child  ?  I  shall  be  told 
that  some  punishment  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  those  children  who  have  had  no  good  early 
training. 

In  a  very  fine  passage  of  the  "  Remorse," 
Coleridge  contrasts  the  two  ways  of  treating  the 
wrong-doer,  and  after  drawing  a  powerful  picture 


122    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

of  the  conventional  treatment  of  the  criminal, 
exclaims, — 

"  With  other  ministrations,  thou,  O  Nature, 
Healest  thy  wandering  and  distempered  child, 
Thou  pourest  on  him  thy  soft  influences. 
Thy  sunny  hues,  fair  forms,  and  breathing  sweets, 
Thy  melodies  of  woods,  and  winds,  and  waters, 
Till  he  relent,  and  can  no  more  endure 
To  be  a  jarring  and  a  dissonant  thing 
Amid  this  general  dance  and  minstrelsy  ; 
But,  bursting  into  tears,  wins  back  his  way, 
His  angry  spirit  healed  and  harmonized 
By  the  benignant  touch  of  love  and  beauty." 

Here  the  wrong--doer  is  regarded  as  sick  in  spirit, 
and  he  is  brought  back  to  health, — i.e.  goodness, 
— by  the  natural  educational  processes.  We  are 
not  considering,  as  Coleridge  was,  the  wrong- 
doing of  adults,  but  I  think  the  conduct  of 
erring  children  may  be  thus  estimated.  The 
child's  action  when  out  of  harmony  with  the 
higher  moral  laws  is  wrong  {wnuig  from  the 
right).  His  nature,  as  part  of  humanity,  is 
designed  to  love  goodness,  to  do  right ;  we  must 
treat  his  failiuir  from  the  law  of  his  nature  as 
abnormal,  and  seek  for  influences,  as  we  do  in 
the  case  of  bodily  sickness,  which  will  restore 
his  soul  to  health.  Nor  can  we  be  content  with 
outward  conformity  to  goodness.  We  must  be 
assured  that  the  character  of  the  child  is  what  it 


Rewards  and  Pztnishments.  123 

seems  to  be,  that  its  will  is  governed  by  the  best 
part  of  its  nature. 

In  as  far  as  reward  is  the  antithesis  of  punish- 
ment, what  is  true  of  the  one  is  true  of  the  other, 
with  the  difference,  that  it  is  always  more  safe  to 
appeal  in  children  to  the  love  of  pleasure  than  to 
the  fear  of  pain.  At  the  same  time,  while  punish- 
ment brings  in  its  train  certain  evils,  extraneous 
reward  of  good  action  stimulates  vanity,  pride, 
all  forms  of  self-love,  and  the  development  of  the 
selfish,  as  opposed  to  the  unselfish  part  of  the 
nature.  We  may  safely  and  freely  allow'  the 
natural  rewards  to  follow  upon  good  conduct ; 
but  it  shows  weakness  in  education  to  supplement 
these  by  extraneous  pleasures.  A  child  learns 
under  a  good  teacher  with  extreme  industry  and 
eagerness  :  he  is  rewarded  by  the  pleasure  he 
feels  in  the  acquisition  of  new  knowledge,  in  the 
exercise  of  his  faculties,  in  the  sympathy  of  his 
teacher  :  it  is  something  like  "  gilding  gold  "  to 
offer  this  child  further  stimulus  in  the  shape  of 
prizes.  Prizes  for  intellectual  work  have  been 
the  invention  of  bad  teachers  ;  certainly  they  are 
not  needed  by  those  who  thoroughly  understand 
their  business.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
taking  of  places,  and  the  system  of  "  marks,"  when 
not  used  as  a  means  of  recording  the  progress  of 
pupils. 


124    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

At  Dunmow,  I  believe,  the  flitch  of  bacon  is 
still  given  to  couples  who  claim  it  for  their  year 
of  marriage  passed  without  a  quarrel.  In  French 
stories  we  read  of  the  virtuous  zxxX  of  the  villaofe 
being  publicly  rewarded.  The  inadequacy  of  such 
rewards  pointedly  shows  the  mistake  of  the  prin- 
ciple ;  while  the  common  proverb,  "  Virtue  is  its 
own  reward,"  puts  into  shape  the  truth  I  am 
trying  to  enunciate.  The  exercise  of  the  moral, 
no  less  than  the  intellectual,  faculties,  is  followed 
by  the  reward  of  pleasure,  and  the  satisfaction 
of  the  moral  sense  ;  and  we  strengthen  the  child's 
moral  nature,  we  keep  its  purity  intact,  when 
we  rely  on  this  natural  pleasure  :  we  weaken  it 
inasmuch  as  we  encoura<j:e  in  its  exercise  mixed 
motives. 

No  doubt  extraneous  rewards  are  admissible 
sometimes,  when  we  are  trying  to  stimulate  a 
sluggish  disposition,  or  are  endeavouring  to  esta- 
blish a  habit.  1  have  known  the  offer  of  small 
pleasures  act  extremely  well  in  such  cases  ;  but 
they  were  only  used  as  leverage,  and  the 
moral  conduct  aimed  at  was  of  so  moderate  a 
pitch,  that  it  was  not  degraded  by  an  inadec^uate 
measure. 

To  tlie  order  of  natural  rewards  and  punish- 
ment belongs  one  of  the  most  powerful  forces 
in  the  training  of  children — the  ai)proval  or  dis- 


Rewards  and  Punishments.  125 

approval  of  those  they  love.  In  proportion  to  the 
excellence  and  beauty  of  the  relation  between 
parents  and  children,  in  proportion  to  the  love 
between  them,  and  the  reverence  of  the  younger 
for  the  elder,  will  be  the  strength  of  this  force. 
It  becomes  an  external  conscience  to  the  child, 
but  a  conscience  so  tempered  by  mutual  love 
as  to  be  a  healthy,  almost  unconscious  moral 
sense. 

Indeed,  with  the  sort  of  training  I  have  endea- 
voured to  describe  in  these  pages — training  be- 
gun in  the  cradle,  and  continued  throughout  the 
growth  of  the  child,  with  the  love,  and  thought, 
and  devotion  to  ideals  in  education  which  may 
be  exercised  by  every  parent,  punishment  is 
wholly  unnecessary.  But  I  am  well  aware  that 
this  early  training  is  still  rare,  and  that  conse- 
quently the  dealing  with  faults  in  children  is 
almost  inevitable.  If  the  ordinary  means  of 
meetinof  these  moral  difficulties  is  irrational  and 
unphilosophical,  what  other  methods  are  left  to 
educators  ? 

In  previous  chapters  I  have  endeavoured  to 
show  how  some  of  these  faults  should  be  treated 
— how  untruth  will  fade  away  under  the  growth 
of  courage  and  a  truer  conception  of  the  nature 
of  truth — how  anger  and  selfishness  must  be  con- 
quered by  gentleness  and   appeals   to  unselfish- 


1 26    Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children. 

ness— how  disobedience  must  not  be  risked, 
as  obedience  can  never  be  enforced,  and  can 
only  be  obtained  by  demands  upon  right  feel- 
ing—  and  so  on.  I  am  quite  aware  that 
special  cases  will  require  special  educational 
treatment,  that  the  variety  given  us  to  deal 
with  by  nature  is  so  abundant,  that  in  spite 
of  acknowledged  resemblances  and  differences, 
every  child  is  individual  in  certain  particulars, 
and  requires  some  treatment  peculiar  to  itself. 
In  the  family  such  treatment  is  possible.  We 
often  see  in  schools  how  individuals  suffer  by 
being  part  of  a  system  which  must  be  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  the  majority. 

As  a  general  principle,  in  dealing  either  with 
"  inherited  defects  "  of  children,  or  the  results  of 
their  bad  training,  I  urge  that  we  should  lay  as 
little  stress  as  possible  upon  faults. ,  We  must 
studiously  avoid  to  rouse  them  :  for  in  activity 
they  grow  and  strengthen  as  virtues  do,  in  rest 
they  may  grow  weak  and  die. 

We  must  fix  our  attention  and  our  loving 
energy  upon  all  the  good  traits  in  the  faulty  child, 
we  must  watch  every  tender  germ  of  better  life 
in  him  ;  we  must  love  his  soul,  even  if  he  is  not 
personally  dear  to  us — we  must  so  love  it  that 
we  rescue  it  from  the  power  of  evil,  and  give  our 
unwearied  devotion  to  its  development   in  good- 


Rewards  and  Punishments.  127 

ness.  We  must  not  be  suspicious  of  evil  motives, 
we  must  avoid  the  temptation  of  watching  for 
wrong-doing — encourage  the  child's  efforts  to  do 
right  by  accepting  them  as  what  we  expect  from 
him.  What  priests  do  in  the  heights  of  their 
office,  educators  must  do  on  the  lowly  plains  of 
their  duty,  in  faith,  and  hope,  and  a  humble 
patience. 


EDUCATION. 


129 


Conscious  Motherhood. 

Or,  The  Earliest  Unfolding  of  the  Child  in  the  Cradle,  Nursery  and  Kindergarten. 
By  Emma  Marwedel.     Cloth.     560  pages.     Retail  price,  $2.00. 

TO  those  who  have  known  of  the  author's  work  in  San  Francisco, 
or  who  have  heard  her  expound  the  principles  to  which  she  has 
so  earnestly  devoted  the  best  years  of  her  life,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
say  more  than  that  she  has  given  to  the  public  in  this  volume  the  re- 
sults of  her  best  thought  and  personal  experience  in  the  application 
of  true  educational  principles  to  the  early  unfolding  of  the  child's 
capacities.  No  teacher  of  young  children,  no  mother,  and  no  stu- 
dent of  child-nature  can  afford  to  be  without  this  valuable  work.  If 
will  be  fo7i7id  Indispensable  to  the  tme  educator  in  any  sphere,  and 
is  especially  commended  to  the  attention  of  normal  school  teachers 
and  students. 

The  following  are  a  few  quotations  from  emphatic  endorseiuents  of 
this  book  given  in  our  special  circular : — 


iJ.  P.  Peabody,  Boston:  I  take  this 
opportunity  to  say  that  I  count  it  a  special 
providence  that  at  this  moment  Miss 
Marwedel's  "  Conscious  Motherhood  "  is 
published,  as  it  completely  supplements 
my  life-work,  with  an  illustrated,  practical 
application  of  Froebel's  true  theory  of  the 
education  of  the  child. 

I  therefore  make  it  my  last  words  to  re- 
fer my  readers  to  Miss  Marwedel's  first 
book  for  mothers.  It  is  in  itself  a  key  to 
the  whole  of  Froebel's  philosophy,  whose 
depths  she  seems  to  me  to  have  sounded 
more  thoroughly  than  any  of  his  disciples. 

W.  N.  Hailmann,  Supt.  Public 
Schools,  LaPorte,  Ind. :  I  feel  assured 
that  in  the  hands  of  the  intelligent,  con- 
scientious mothers,  it  will  do  much  good. 
The  language  is  forcible  and  terse,  the 
points  are  well  selected  and  wisely  taken, 
its  precepts  are  sound.  I  congratulate 
Miss  Marwedel  on  this  beautiful  and  use- 
ful volume. 

Jas.  MacAllster,  Su/f.  of  Public 
Schools,  Philadelphia  :  No  woman  in  this 


country  is  more  competent  to  write  on 
earliest  education  and  the  kindergarten 
than  Miss  Marwedel. 

Illinois  School  Journal :  This  is 
a  book  that  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold  to 
every  mother  of  children,  and  to  every 
prospective  mother  who  would  know  what 
motherhood  involves,  and  who  would 
properly  discahrge  the  duties  of  a  mother. 
But  the  book  is  hardly  less  valuable  to  the 
primary  teacher,  and  especially  to  the 
teacher  in  the  kindergarten. 

If  every  mother  knew  of,  and  could  ap- 
preciate the  contents  of  this  book,  the 
publishers  could  not  supply  the  demand. 

Christian  Register,  Boston  :  It  will 
be  invaluable  to  mothers  and  kinder- 
gartners.  The  chapter  on  "  The  Ideal 
Nursery  "  is  almost  worth  the  price  of  the 
book. 

Minneapolis  Tribune  :   The  work 

is  the  most  profound  and  most  practical 
on  kindergarten  and  mothers'  earliest 
work  with  children,  yet  published. 


EDUCATION. 


Compayre  s  History  of  Pedagogy. 

Translated  and  Edited  by  W.  H.  Payne,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nash- 
ville and  President  of  th^  Peabody  Normal  College;  with  Introduction,  Notes, 
References,  and  an  Index.  Clotli.  6iS  pages.  Retail  price,  ;?i.75.  Special 
price  for  class  use. 

IN  one  volume  of  moderate  size  the  reader  will  find  an  interesting^ 
instructive,  and  comprehensive  account  of  all  the  greater  move- 
ments in  the  history  of  human  thought  as  it  bears  on  education.  The 
great  need  of  the  teacher  is  breadth  of  view,  and  an  adequate  survey 
of  the  whole  field  of  educational  activity,  and  these  wholesome  and 
necessary  endowments  can  come  only  from  a  study  of  the  history  of 
education.  For  this  high  purpose  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  no 
other  book  in  any  language  which  has  the  excellences  of  Compayre''s 
History  of  Pedagogy. 


W.  T.  Harris,  U.  S.  ComW  of  Edu- 
cation, Washington  :  It  is  indispensable 
among  histories  of  education. 

G.  Stanley  Hall,  Pres.  of  Clark 
Univ.,  Worcester,  Mass.:  It  is  the  best 
and  most  comprehensive  universal  liistory 
of  education  in  English.  The  translator 
has  added  valuable  notes. 

Irwin  Shepard,  Prcs.  of  State  Nor- 
mal School,  Winona,  Minn. :  We  adopted 
immediately  upon  its  publication,  and  are 
now  using  it  with  great  satisfaction  in  a 
class  of  sixty  members.  Tlirough  the  aid 
of  this  book,  the  subject  has  assumed  a 
new  interest  and  importance  to  all  our 
teachers  and  str.dents. 

Gabriel  Carapayr6,  Chamhres  des 
Deputes,  Parts :  Votre  traduction  me 
parait  excellente  et  je  vous  remercie  des 
soins  que  vous  y  avez  mis.  J'ai  grand 
plaisir  k  me  relire  dans  votre  langue, 
d'autant  que  vous  n'avez  rien  n6gligt3 
pour  I'impression  mat6rielle. 

J.  W.  Stearns,  Prof,  of  the  Science 
and  Art  of  Teaching,  Univ.  of  Wis. :  It 
will,  I  Ixilievc,  serve  to  increase  interest  in 
the  history  of  educational  thought  and  ex- 
perience, —  an  end  greatly  to  be  desired. 


M.  A.  Newell,  State  Sn/t.  of  Educa- 
tion, Baltimore,  Md.:  It  is  a  very  valuable 
addition  to  our  pedagogic  literature  ;  it  is 
as  brief  as  the  breadth  of  the  subject  would 
allow,  and  is  comprehensive  and  philo- 
sophical. The  notes  and  index  added  by 
Professor  Payne  very  much  increase  the 
value  of  the  work. 

E.  H.  Russell,  Pr  in.  of  State  Normal 
School,  Worcester,  Mass.:  1  say  unhesi- 
tatingly that  it  is  a  very  valuable  edition 
to  the  list  of  tirst-rate  books  for  teachers 
I  have  put  it  into  the  hands  of  our  senior 
class,  and  have  recommended  it  to  our 
graduates. 

N.  M.  Butler,  Prin.  of  N.  Y.  Coll. 
for  Training  oj  Teachers:  It  sliould  be  in 
the  hands  of  every  teacher,  every  normal- 
school  student,  and  on  the  list  of  every 
"  reading  circle."  I  jiredict  for  the  book 
tiie  greatest  success,  for  it  deserves  it. 

E.  E.  Higbee,  late  State  Supt.of  Pub- 
lic Instruction,  Harrisburg,  Penn.  :  I 
hojieit  may  be  introduced  into  all  the  nor- 
mal schools  of  tliis  State,  and  give  a  dig- 
nilit'il  impetus  to  studies  of  such  ciiaracter, 
so  much  needed  and  so  valuable. 


ii8 


EDUCATION. 


Compayre's  Lectures  on  Pedagogy. 

Translated  and  Edited  by  W.  H.  Payne,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nash- 
ville and  President  of  the  Peabody  Normal  College.  Cloth.  500  pages.  Retail 
price,  $1.75.    Special  price  for  class  use. 

THIS  is  a  companion  volume  to  the  Author's  History  of  Peda- 
gogy and  is  characterized  by  the  qualities  that  are  so  conspic- 
uous in  the  earlier  volume ;  it  is  comprehensive,  clear,  accurate,  and 
is  written  with  rare  critical  insight.  To  have  an  original  and  superior 
mind  elaborate  a  systematic  theory  of  education  out  of  the  best  his- 
toric material  accessible,  and  present  as  its  complement  a  revised 
series  of  methods,  would  be  thought  an  invaluable  service  to  the 
teaching  profession,  but  this  is  precisely  what  M.  Compayre  has 
done  in  this  charming  volume.  It  is  the  most  original  and  satisfac- 
tory manual  for  teachers  that  has  ever  appeared  in  English. 


Jas.  MacAlister,  Sitpt.  of  Public 
Schools,  Fliiiadelpina,  Pa. :  I  have  known 
tlie  book  ever  since  it  appeared,  and  re- 
gard it  as  the  best  work  in  existence  on 
the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Education. 

Tbomas  J-  Morgan,  recently  Priti. 
State  Normal  Sc/tool,  Providence,  R.  I. : 
It  seems  to  me  the  best  book  on  the  sub- 
ject which  has  yet  been  published  in 
America. 

H.  B.  Twitmeyer,  Coll.  of  Northern 
III.,  Dakita,  111. :  It  is  the  best  resume  I 
have  ever  seen  on  the  study  and  practice 
of  teaching. 

Richard  Edwards,  Supt.  Public 
'tistruciion,  Sprin^eld,  III.  :  I  value  the 


book  very  highly  indeed,  and  think  it  will 
have  great  effect  in  uplifting  the  profes- 
sion of  teachers  in  this  country. 

"W.  W.  Parsons,  Pres.  Ind.  State 
Normal  School :  I  pronounce  it  an  excel- 
lent popular  treatise  on  the  Science  of 
Education.  I  consider  it  a  valuable  addi- 
tion to  our  professional  literature. 

Christian  Union :  Especially  in- 
genious is  the  chapter  upon  the  education 
of  the  attention ;  that,  too,  upon  the  cul- 
ture of  the  memory  is  of  gi'eat  practical 
value.  We  should  like  to  put  this  work 
into  the  hands  of  every  instructor,  whether 
parent  or  teacher. 


Levana  ;  or  the  Doctrine  of  Education. 

A  Translation  from  Jean  Paul  Friedrich  Richter.    Cloth.    451  pages 
Retail  price,  ^1.40. 

WE  add  this  volume  to  our  series  of  "  Educational  Classics  "  in 
the  belief  that  it  will  tend  to  ameliorate  that  department  of 
education  which  is  most  neglected  and  yet  needs  most  care, — home 
trailing.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  "Levana"  is  one  of  the  books 
prescribed  to  be  read  for  the  Teacher's  Diploma  of  the  University  of 


EDUCATION. 


London.     Among  other  topics,  it  treats  o£ :  — 


The  Importance  of  Education. 

The  irpirit  and  Principle  of  Educa- 
tion. 

To  Discover  and  to  Appreciate  the 
Individuality  of  the  Ideal  Man. 

Religious  Education. 

The  Beginning  of  Education. 

The  Joyousness  of  Children. 

Games  of  Children. 

Music.  [ments. 

Commands,  Prohibitions,    Punish- 


Physical  Education. 

Female  Education. 

The  Moral  Education  of  Boys. 

Development  of  the  Desire    for 

Intellectual  Progress. 
Speech  and  Writing. 
Development  of  Wit. 
Development  of  Reflection. 
Development    of    the  Sense  of 

Beauty. 
Classical  Education. 


Pestalozzis  Leonard  and  Gertrude. 


Translated  and  abridged  by  Eva  Channing.  With  an  Introduction  by  G.  Stan- 
ley Hall,  President  of  Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass.  Cloth.  193  pages. 
Retail  price,  90  cents. 

THIS  is  a  carefully  abridged  translation,  in  which  the  gist  of  five 
large  volumes  is  compressed  into  a  book  of  less  than  two  hundred 
pages,  which,  while  retaining  much  of  the  quaint  simplicity  of  the  origi- 
nal, avoids  its  repellant  prolixity  and  converts  the  reader's  task  into  a 
pleasure. 

In  this  charming,  instructive,  and  suggestive  union  of  a  capital  story 
and  a  pedagogical  treatise,  Pestalozzi  sets  forth  his  radical,  far-reaching 
views  of  the  true  scope  and  end  of  education  as  well  as  of  the  true 
method  of  attaining  that  end.  It  is  a  book  to  be  read  alike  by  mothers, 
teachers  and  social  reformers,  —  by  all,  in  short,  who  are  convinced 
of  the  necessity  of  uniting  moral  with  intellectual  training. 

The  Nation  ;  If  we  except  Rousseau's 
"  Emile  "  only,  no  more  important  educa- 
tional book  has  appealed  for  a  century 
and  a  half  than  this.  Its  effect,  not  only 
in  CJermany,  but  throughout  Europe,  was 
great  and  immediate.  Every  teacher  will 
be  stimulated  and  instructed  by  reading 
this  quaint  and  thrilling  educational  ro- 
mance. 

Ne^w  York  School  Journal  :  This 
biiok  fitly  apjHjars  i)eside  '•  Kmilc."  The 
fpirit  tliat  is  in  it  is  immortal. 


R.  H.  Quick,  in  "  Educaiional  Re- 
formers "  :  No  wonder  that  the  IJerne  Ag- 
ricultural Society  sent  the  author  a  gold 
medal,  with  a  letter  of  thanks ;  and  that 
the  book  excited  vast  interest,  both  in  its 
native  country  and  throughout  Ger- 
many. 

Oscar  Bro'wning', ///  "  EJufationnl 
TJu-flriis'''' :  A  niotlier  who  fallows  the 
principles  inculcated  in  this  book  can  ed- 
ucate iier  chi'dren  as  if  she  were  the  pos 
snssor  of  all  the  sciences. 


EDUCATION. 


Manual  of  Empirical  Psychology. 

An  authorized  translation  from  tlie  German  of  Dr.  G.  A.  Lindner,  by  Charles 
De  Garmo,  Ph  D.,  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  in  State  Normal  Univer« 
sitj',  111.    Cloth.    274  pages.     Price  by  mail,  ^i.  10.     Introduction  price,  ^i. 00. 

THIS  is  the  best  Manual  of  Psychology  ever  prepared  from  the 
Herbartian  standpoint,  which,  briefly  characterized,  is  the 
standpoint  of  pedagogics.  No  other  school  of  psychologists  have 
thrown  so  much  light  upon  the  solution  of  the  problems  arising  in  the 
instruction  and  training  of  youth ;  and  no  other  author  of  this  school 
has  been  so  successful  as  Lindner  in  compact  yet  comprehensive  and 
intelligible  statement  of  psychological  facts  and  principles.  The  book 
is  what  its  name  indicates,  a  psychology  arising  from  the  given  data 
of  experience ;  yet  there  is  no  psychology  in  English  which  does  so 
much  toward  arousing  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  advanced  depart- 
ments of  rational  psychology  and  philosophy  in  general. 

That  an  effective  educational  psychology  must  be  based  upon  a 
concrete  experience,  rather  than  upon  the  a  priori  forms  of  mind  is 
reasonably  evident,  but  Lindner  is  more  than  a  mere  recorder  of  eX' 
perience.  He  unfolds  his  subject  as  a  true  inductive  science,  never 
losing  sight  of  the  organic  development  of  mental  life.  This  gives 
him  a  great  pedagogical  significance.  Again,  he  is  always  interesting. 
His  explanations  are  lucid,  pointed,  and  self-consistent,  while  every 
department  of  science  and  of  experience  has  yielded  its  choicest  facts 
to  enrich  the  contents  of  the  book. 

The  work  is  especially  recommended  for  normal  schools,    reading 
circles,  and  higher  institutions  of  learning. 

W.  H.  Councill,  Prin.  State  Nor- 
mal  and  Industrial  School,  Ala. :  The 
work  possesses  every  merit  necessary  to 
give  it  a  permanent  place  among  the  high- 
est order  of  text  books. 

G.   S.   Albee,    Pres.   State  Normal 


G.  Stanley  Hall,  Pres.  of  Clark 
Univ.,  Worcester,  Mass.  :  The  practical 
applicability  of  this  stand-point  and  book 
makes  its  merits. 

G.  Williamson  Smith,  Pres.  of 
Trinity  Coll.,  Hartford,  Conn.  :  It  is  an 
original  work,  on  well  conceived  principles 
and  carried  on  by  methods  of  induction 
approved  by  all. 

F,  Louis  Soldan,  Prin.  St.  Louis 
Normal  and  High  School:  Lindner's 
Psychology  is  one  of  the  best  works,  if  not 
the  best,  of  the  vigorous  school  to  which 
he  belongs.       The  translation  is  an   im 


School,  Oshkosh,  Wis.  :  Only  the  most 
original  and  realistic  teachers  Iiave  been 
able  to  obtain  results  in  class  work  which 
lifted  the  study  of  psychology  above  con- 
tempt. This  key-note  of  the  best  and 
most  definitely  true  teaching  appears  upon 
nearly  every  page  of  Lindner.  The  author 
may  congratulate  himself  that  his  Ameri- 


provement  on  the  originaL  1  can  editor  was  a  clear-minded  psychologist 


EDUCATION. 


Extracts  from  Rons  semis  Em  He. 

Containing  the  Pr.'ncipal  Elements  of  Pedagogy.  With  an  Introduction  and 
Notes  by  Jules  Steeg,  Paris,  Deput6  de  la  Gironde.  Translated  by  Eleanor 
WoRTHiNGTON,  recently  of  the  Cook  County  Normal  School,  111.  Cloth.  157 
pages.     Retail  price,  90  cents. 

"Therg  are  fifty  pages  of  the  Emile  that  should  be  bound  in  vel 
7et  and  gold." 

—  Voltaire. 

TN  this  book  will  be  found  the  ger.n  of  all  that  is  useful  in  present 
•*•  systems  of  education,  as  well  as  most  of  the  ever-recurring  mistakes 
cf  well-meaning  zealots.  It  is  a  judicious  selection  from  a  work 
which,  in  its  entirety,  would  tax  the  patience  of  the  modern  reader. 

The  eighteenth  century  translations  of  this  wonderful  book  have  the 
disadvantage  of  an  English  style  long  disused.  This  new  translation 
has  the  merit  of  being  in  the  dialect  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  will 
thus  be  enjoyed  by  a  wider  circle  of  readers. 

It  has  been  called  '•  Nature's  First  Gospel  on  Education,^''  and  in  Edu- 
cational Theories,  Oscar  Browning  says  concerning  it :  "  Probably  no 
work  on  the  subject  of  education  has  produced  so  much  effect  as  the 
«  Emile." 


R.  H.  Quick,  in  "  Educational  Re- 
formers " :  Perhaps  the  most  influential 
book  ever  written  on  the  subject  of  educa- 
tion. 

"W.  H.  Payne,  Chancellor  of  the 
Univ.  of  Nashville  and  Prcs.  of  the  Fea- 
tody  l\iormal  Coll.:  Miss  Worthington 
has  made  a  version  of  real  merit;  Rous- 
seau's thought  has  been  transferred  to 
Englisii  witli  great  accuracy,  and  much  of 
the  original  grace  of  style  has  been  pre- 
served. The  teachers  of  the  country  arc 
indebted  to  you  for  this  invaluable  contri- 
bution to  the  literature  of  the  profes- 
sion, 

J.  W.  Dickinson,  Sec.  of  Mass. 
Boat  d  of  Education  :  It  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  every  teacher  in  tiie  State. 

Francis  W.  Parker,  Prin.  Cool-  Co. 
Normal  School:  Tcacliers  need  to  go 
back  to  the  man  who  gave  such  an  im- 
mense impulse  to  reform  in  education. 


Gabriel  Compayr6,  in  his  "  I/is- 

tory  of  Pedagogy''^ :  The  greatest  educa- 
tional event  of  the  eighteenth  century.  A 
book  written  for  the  future  of  humanity, 
endowed  with  endless  vitality,  half  ro- 
mance, half  essay,  the  grandest  monument 
of  human  thought  on  the  subject  of  edu- 
cation The  Emile,  in  fact,  is  not  a 
work  of  ephemeral  polemics,  nor  simply  a 
practical  manual  of  pedagogy,  but  is  a 
general  system  of  education,  a  treatise  on 
psychology  and  moral  training,  a  prt)found 
analysis  of  human  nature. 

London  Journal  of  Education: 
The  amazing  originality  and  boldness  oi 
the  book,  its  endless  suggestivencss,  are 
too  often  ignored  by  English  critics,  who 
forget  that  nearly  all  our  brand-new 
theories  are  to  be  found  in  "  Emile.'' 

Boston  Advertiser:  Such  a  book 
as  this  ought  to  Ijc  read  by  everyone  who 
claims  to  be  interested  ia  any  way  in  the 
cause  of  education. 


i?4 


EDUCATION. 


Habit  in  Education. 


An  Essay  in  Pedagogical  Psychology.  Translated  from  the  German  of  Dr.  Paui 
Radestock  by  F.  A.  Caspari,  Teacher  of  German,  Girls'  High  School,  Balti- 
more ;  with  an  Introduction  by  Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall,  President  of  Clark  Uni- 
versity, Worcester,  Mass.    Cloth.    124  pages.     Retail  price,  75  cents. 

T^R.  Radestock  discusses  in  this  little  book  the  various  habits 
-L^  in  the  acquisation  of  which  educators  can  vastly  aid  their  pupils 
Not  content  with  giving  the  result  of  his  own  experience  and  stud)  ci 
the  principles  forming  the  psycho-physiological  basis  of  habit,  Dr. 
Radestock  offers  the  student  choice  extracts  from  the  works  of  such 
widely  different  authorities  as  Herbart  and  Spencer,  Tito  Vignoli, 
Ribot,  Dumont,  and  Dr.  Maudsley,  and  places  clearly  before  the  read- 
er the  two  conflicting  pedagogical  problems  which  daily  confront  the 
teacher,  yet  to  one  or  the  other  of  which  he  must  look  as  the  aim  and 
end  of  all  his  efforts: — Which  brings  the  better  result?  To  follow 
Rousseau,  who  says  :  "The  only  habit  which  a  child  should  be  per- 
mitted to  acquire  is,  that  it  habituate  itself  to  nothing  in  particular,"  or 
Bacon,  who  says;  "  Since  custom  is  the  principal  magistrate  of  man's 
life,  let  men,  by  all  means,  endeavor  to  obtain  good  customs.  Cer- 
tainly, custom  is  most  perfect  when  it  beginneth  in  young  years  ;  this 
we  call  education,  which  is  in  effect  but  early  custom." 


Jolin  Dewey,  Prof,  of  Philosophy, 
Univ.  of  Mich.,  Ann  Arbor:  Radestock 
has  been  tor  some  time  favorably  known 
by  means  of  his  psychological  monographs, 
of  whicli  this  upon  Habit  is  no  doubt  the 
best,  as  it  is  also  without  doubt  the  most 
suggestive  and  fruitful  of  all  monographs 
upon  this  most  important  subiect. 

Julius  H.  Seelye,  Pres.  of  Amherst 
CM.:  I  am  very  much  pleased  with  it. 
Jt  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  both  educa- 
tional theory  and  practice. 

J.  W.  Stearns,  Prof  of  Science  and 
Art  of  Teaching,  Univ.  of  Wis.:  You 
have  certainly  conferred  a  great  favor  upon 
teachers  by  placing  so  admirable  a  treatise 
within  their  reach,  and  I  hope  it  may  be- 
come widely  known. 

E.  A.  Sheldon,  State  Normal  School, 
Oswego,  N,  Y. ;  1  am  much  pleased  with 


the  clear  and  concise  statement  of  princi- 
ples, and  the  wide  range  of  thought  in- 
cluded in  the  book.  It  deserves  S).  place 
in   every   teacher's   library. 

S.  N.  Fellows,  Prof,  of  Mental  and 
Moral  Philosophy  and  Didactics,  State 
Univ.  of  la. :  I  regard  it  as  a  valuable  con- 
tribution to  pedagogical  literature.  It 
should  find  a  place  in  every  teacher's 
library. 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Prin 
of  N.  Y.  City  College  for  Training  oj 
Teachers :  It  is  a  wonderful  production 
and  every  Normal  School  and  Training 
College  in  this  country  ought  to  use  it. 

E.  H.  Russell,  Prin.  of  State  Nor- 
mal School,  Worcester,  Mass.:  It  will 
prove  a  rare  "find"  to  teachers  who  are 
seeking  to  ground  themselves  in  the  philo 
sophy  of  their  art 


EDUCATION. 


Rosiuinis  MetJiod  in  Education. 

Translated  from  the  Italian  of  Antonio  Rosmini  Serbati  by  Mrs.  William 
Grey,  whose  name  has  been  widely  known  in  England  for  many  years  past  as 
a  leader  in  the  movement  for  the  higher  education  of  women.  Cloth.  3S9  pages. 
Retail  price,  $1.50. 

THIS  is  a  work  of  singular  interest  for  the  educational  world,  and 
especially  for  all  those  who  desire  to  place  education  on  a 
scientific  basis. 

It  is  an  admirable  exposition  of  the  method  of  presenting  knowl- 
edge to  the  human  mind  in  accordance  with  the  natural  laws  of  its 
development ;  and  the  disciples  of  Froebel  will  find  in  it  not  only  a 
perfectly  independent  confirmation,  but  the  true  psychological  estimate 
of  ihe  principles  of  Froebel's  kindergarten  system.  We  believe  that 
this  translation  of  the  work  of  the  great  Italian  thinker  will  prove  a 
boon  to  all  English-speaking  lovers  of  true  education. 


Thomas  Davidson  :  It  is  the  most 
important  pedagogical  work  ever  written. 

J.  W.  Stearns,  Prof,  of  Science  and 
Art  of  Teacliiitg,  Univ.  of  ]Visconsin  : 
No  one  who  cares  to  understand  the  psy- 
chological giounds  upon  which  right 
primary  methods  must  rest  can  afford  to 
pass  this  book  by.  It  is  a  clear,  simple, 
and  methodical  inquiry  into  the  develop 
ment  of  the  infant  mind,  and  the  kind  of 
knowledge  adapted  to  the  different  stages 
of  its  growth,  and  ought  to  beat  once  re- 
ceived with  favor  by  American  teachers. 

I  shall  take  great  pleasure  in  calling 
the  attention  of  my  classes  to  this  book, 
and  to  the  list  published  by  your  house, 
which  seems  to  me  composed  of  very  val- 
uable works. 

Mary  Sheldon  Barnes,  formerly 
Prof,  of  History  in  WcllcsUy  Coll., Mass. : 
This  is  a  very  exceptional  work,  in  that  it 
is  at  the  same  time  philosophical  and 
practical.  I  feel  as  if,  in  the  midst  of  all 
the  fragmentary,  erratic,  comnionjilace 
stuff  that  is  usually  relegated  to  the  name 
of  Pedagogics,  something  worthy,  clear, 
and  intellectually  inspiring  had  at  length 
appeared.     For  myself,  1  wish  to  under- 


stand it  thoroughly  from  cover  to  cover ; 
for  while  I  may  not  always  agiee  with  it, 
still  it  will  compel  me  to  define  more 
clearly  just  what  I  do  think — a  most  val- 
uable intellectual  service. 

The  Nation :  The  book  shows  the 
influence  of  psychology  in  determining  all 
methods  of  pedagogy,  and  moves  t6wards 
the  practical  spirit  of  modern  times  in  that 
it  has  no  sjicculative  problems  to  solve, 
and  no  sncciai  intellectual  ends  like  those 
of  philosophy  to  condition  the  mode  of 
education  it  defends. 

New  York  World:  Mis  ideal  of  life 
is  so  high,  his  motives  are  everywhere  so 
noble,  tliat  the  very  perusal  of  his  book 
will  be  itself  a  sort  of  education  to  parents 
and  teachers.  And  we  should  say  that 
no  parent  or  teaclier  having  at  heart  the 
highest  good  of  the  children  committed  to 
his  care  can  afford  to  be  without  this  book. 
It  will  impress  those  who  read  it  with  the 
importance  of  education  and  of  its  far- 
reaching  power,  and  render  teachers  earn- 
est in  ncir  work,  'i'hc  translation  is  well 
done.  Mrs.  Orcy,  who,  a  most  excellent 
Italian  scholar,  has  come  to  tiie  work  witii 
every  advantage. 


126 


EDUCATION. 


A  Descriptive  Bibliography  of  Education. 

Arranged  by  topics.  By  G.  Stanley  Hall,  President  of  Clark  University, 
Worcester,  Mass.,  and  John  M.  Mansfield.  Cloth.  325  pages.  Retail 
Price,  ^1.50.    Interleaved,  ?2.oo. 

'"pHIS  is  really  the  work  of  many  years,  and  the  sixty  chief,  as  well 
-■-  as  the  minor  topics,  follow  the  order  of  a  systematic  course  in 
pedagogy.  In  giving  a  brief  of  his  reading  a  man  really  imparts  his 
secret,  and  in  a  sense  gives  the  chief  aid  he  is  able  to  render  to  others 
One  who  would  read  the  best  book  indicated  under  each  of  these  top 
ics  would  be  himself  a  master  in  the  field  of  Pedagogy. 

W.  T.  Harris,  U.  S.  Corn'r  of  Edu- 
cation, Washington  :  It  is  valuable  to 
every  teacher  who  wishes  to  see  what  a 
wonderful  wealth  of  excellent  books  on 
education  there  are. 

H.  B.  Adams,  Assoc.  Prof,  of  His- 
tory,  Johns  Hopkins  Univ.,  Baltimore, 
Md.  :  The  variety  of  educational  subjects 
here  represented  is  no  less  gratifying  than 
surprising. 


R.  H.  Quick,  in  London  Journal 
Education  :  It  is  a  most  useful  work  and 
must  have  cost  the  writers  a  vast  amount 
of  labor. 

Tlie  Schoolmaster,  London,  Eng.: 
Indexes  and  bibliographies  are  indispen- 
sable in  these  days  of  making  many  books, 
and  many  a  person  interested  in  pedagog- 
ical literature  should  be  indebted  to  Dr. 
Hall  for  the  well-arranged  work  before  us. 


School  Hygiene. 

Or,  The  Laws  of  Health  in  Relation  to  School  Life.  By  Arthur  Newsholme, 
M.D.,  Diplomate  in  Public  Health,  University  of  London.  Cloth.  150  pages. 
Retail  price,  75  cents. 

THIS  admirable  compend  of  Sanitary  Science  is  already  in  use  in 
the  English  training-school.  It  is  indispensable  for  those  who 
are  erecting  new  school-buildings  or  modifying  old  ones.  It  not  only 
contains  compact  information  about  school  surroundings  and  con- 
struction, but  is  filled  with  practical  suggestions  from  a  hygienic  point 
of  view  on  all  the  varied  phases  of  school  life.  It  is  eminently 
adapted  to  public  school,  and  college  libraries. 


N.  E.  Jour,  of  Ed.  :  No  man  occu- 
pies such  rank  with  scholars  and  medical 
experts  on  all  matters  pertaming  to  sani- 
tation and  school  hygienQ  as  Dr.  News- 
holme. 

Athenaeum,  London  :  Wholly  mer- 
itorious and  altogether  free  from  any  blem- 
ishes that  we  can  find.     There  is  nothing 


to  be  said  of  it  but  that  it  is  excellent, 
Education,  Boston :  Very  valuable 
information,  suggestion,  and  instruction 
in  regard  to  a  subject  of  which  many 
teachers  and  school  officers  know  so  little. 
Queries,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. :  It  should 
accomplish  much  good  in  the  direction 
of  preserving  the  health  of  children. 


130  EDUCATION. 

Monographs  on  Education. 

A/TANY  contributions  to  the  theory  or  the  practice  ot  teaching 
■'■'-*■  are  yearly  lost  to  the  profession,  because  they  are  embodied 
in  articles  which  are  too  long,  or  too  profound,  or  too  limited  as  to 
number  of  interested  readers,  for  popular  magazine  articles,  and  yet 
not  sufficient  in  volume  for  books.  We  propose  to  publish  from  time 
to  time,  under  the  above  title,  just  such  essays,  prepared  by  spec- 
ialists, choice  of  matter,  practical  in  treatment,  and  of  unquestionable 
value  to  teachers.  Our  plan  is  to  furnish  the  monographs  in  paper 
covers,  and  at  low  prices.  We  shall  continue  the  series  as  long  as 
teachers  buy  freely  enough  to  allow  the  publishers  to  recover  merely 
the  money  invested.     Of  these  series  the  following  are  now  ready :  — 

Modern  Petrography. 

By  George  Huntington   Williams,  of  the   Johns  Hopkins    University, 

[For  description,  see  page  5. 

The  Study  of  Latin  in  the  Preparatory  Course. 

By  Edward  P.  Morris,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Latin,  Williams  College. 

[For  description,  see  page  143. 

Mathematical  Teaching  and  its  Modern  Methods. 

By  Truman  Henry  Safford,  Ph.D.,  Field  Memori.-il  Professor  of  Astronomy 
in  Williams  College.  [For  description  see  page  i8. 

How  to  leach  Reading  and  What  to  Read  in  the  Schools. 

By  G.  Stanley  Hall,  President  of  Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass. 

[For  descriptiiin,  see  page  99. 

Science  Teaching  in  the  Schools. 

By  William  North  Rice,  Professor  of  Geology  in  Wesleyan  University,  Conn. 

[For  description,  see   page  7. 

English  in  the  Preparatory  Schools. 

By  Ernest  W.  Huffcut,  Instructor  in  Rhetoric  in  Cornell  University. 

[For  description,  see  page  84. 

Eni:lish  in  the  Schools. 


By  F.  C.  Woodward,  Professor  of  Engli^li  in  the  University  of  South  Carolina. 

[For  description,  see  page  P4. 

The  Study  of  Rhetoric  in  the  College  Course. 

By  J.  F.  Genung,  Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Amherst  College. 

[For  description,  see  page  P5 


Science. 

OfS^antC  Ch^tnisfry  :  An  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  Compounds  of  Carbon. 

By  Ira  Remsen,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore. 
374  pages.     Cloth.      Price  by  mail,  $1-30;  Introduction  price,  )f  1.20. 

The  Elements  of  Inorganic  Chemistry:  Descriptive  a?id  Qualitative. 

By  James  H.  Shepard,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  So.  Dakota.  Agricultural  Col. 
399  pages.     Cloth.     Price  by  mail,  $1.25  ;   Introduction  price,  51-12. 

The   Elements    of  Chemistry  :    Descriptive  and  Qualitative.     Briefer  Course. 

By  James  H.  Shepard,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  So.  Dakota  Agricultural  College. 
24S  pages.     Price  by  mail,  90  cts. ;  Introduction  price,  80  cts. 

Elementary    Practical    Physics.        Or  Guide  for  tlie  Physical  Laboratory. 

By  H.  N.  Chute,  Instructor  in  Physics,  Ann  Arbor  High  School,  Mich.  Cloth. 
407  pages.    Price  by  mail,  ^1.25  ;  Introduction  price,  $1.12. 

The    Laboratory    Note- Book.     For  students itslng: any  chemistry. 

Giving  printed  forms  for  "taking  notes"  and  working  out  formula.  Board  covers. 
Cloth  back.     192  pages.     Price  by  mail,  40  cts.  ;  Introduction  price,  35  cts. 

The  Elements  of  Chemical  Arithmetic  :  ivitk  a  short  system  of  ei. 

ementary  Qualitative  Analysis.     By  J.  Milnor  Coit,  M.  A.,  Ph.  D.,  Instructor  in  Chem- 
istry, St. Paul's  School,  Concord,  N.H.      93  pp.     By  mail,  55  cts.  ;  Introduction  price,  50  cts. 

Chemical    Problems.     Adapted  to  High  schools  and  colleges. 

By  Joseph  F.  Grabfibld  and  T.  S.  Burns,  Instructors  in  General  Chemistry  in  the 
Mass.  Inst,  of  Technology.     Cloth.     96  pages.     Price  by  mail,  550.     Introduction  price,  50c. 

Elementary  Course  in  Practical  Zoology. 

By  B.  P.  CoLTON,  A.  M.,  Professor  of  Science,  Illinois  Normal  University.  Cloth. 
196  pages.     Price  by  mail,  85  cts.  ;   Introduction  price,  80  cts. 

First  Book  of  Geology. 

By  N.  S.  Shaler,  Professor  of  Palaeontology,  Harvard  University.  272 pages,  with  130 
figures  in  the  text.     Price  by  mail,  ;Ji.io  ;    Introduction  price,  $1.00. 

The  Teaching  of  Geology. 

By  N.  S.  Shaler,  author  of  First  Book  in  Geology.     Paper.     74  pages.     Price,  25  cents. 

[Modern    Petrography.     An  Accoutit  of  the  Application  of  the  microscope  to  the 

Study  of  Geology.     By  George  Huntington  Williams,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 
Paper.     35  pages.     Price,  25  cents. 

Astronomical  Lantern  and  How  to  Find  the  Stars. 

By  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke.  Intended  to  familiarize  students  with  the  constel- 
lations, by  comparing  them  with  fac-similes  on  the  lantern  face.  Price  of  the  Lantern,  in 
improved  form,  with  seventeen  slides  andacopy  of  "  How  to  Find  the  Stars,"  $4.50. 
"How  TO  Find  THE  Stars,"  separately.     Paper.    47  pages.     Price  15  cts. 


D.    C.    HEATH    &    CO.,    Publishers. 

BOSTON,    NEW   YOPK,   AND    CHICAGO, 


PFhy  should  Teachers 


Read  the  Literature 
of  their  Profession  ? 


1        RprnilQfi  "°  """'  """  sfawrf   high  in  any   profession  who    is  not   familiar 
I .      fcouuoc-  „/;/,  ,-(5  history  and  literature. 

0      RprnilfiP  '^  ^(K'es  time  which  might  be  wasted  in  trying  experiments  that 
^.    L/COUUOC7  y,(jyg  already  been  tried  and  found  useless. 

Coinpayr6's  History  of  Pedagogy.    "  The  best  and  most  comprehensive 

Instory  of  Education  in  English.'"  —  Dr.  G.  S.  Hall fi-75 

Compayre's  Lectures  on  Teaching.    "The  best  book  in  existence  on 

tl>e  theory  and  iiractice  of  Education."  —  Supt.  MacAllister,  Philadelphia.    .         1.75 

Gill's   System  of  Education.     "  It  treats  ably  of  the  Lancaster  and  Bell 

movement  in  Education  —  a  ver\'  important  phase."  —  Dr.  W.  T.  Harri.s.      .         1.25 

RadestOCk'S  Habit  in  Education.  "  It  viill  prove  a  rare  '  find  '  to  teach- 
ers who  are  seeking  to  ground  themselves  in  the  philosophy  of  their  art."  — 
E.  H.  Russell,  Worcester  Normal. 0.75 

Rousseau's  Emile.     "Perhaps  the  most  influential  book  ever  written  on  the 

subject  of  Education."  —  R.  H.  Quick 0.90 

Pestalozzi's  Leonard  and  Gertrude.    "  If  we  except '  Emile'  only,  no 

more  important  educational  book  has  ajipeared,  for  a  century  and  a  half,  than 

'  Leonard  and  Gertrude.' " — The  Nation. 0.90 

Richter's  Levana  -,  or  the  Doctrine  of  Education.    "  A  spirited 

and  scholarly  book."— Prof.  W.  H.  Payne 1.40 

Rosmini'S   Method    in    Education.     "  The  most  important  pedagogical 

work  ever  written."  —  Tho.mas  Davidson.         .......         1.50 

Malleson's  Early  Training  of  Children.  "  The  best  book  for  mothers 

I  ever  read."  —  Ei.izaueth  P.   Peahodv.  ...         ....         0.75 

Hall's   Bibliography  of  Pedagogical   Literature.    Covers  every 

department  of  Education. 1.50 

Peabody's  Home,  Kindergarten  and  Primary  School  Educa- 
tion. "The  best  book  outside  of  the  P.ible  I  ever  read."  —  A  Leading 
Teacher i.oo 

NeWShOlme'S  School  Hygiene,     Already  in  use  in  the  leading  training 

colleges  in  England.       ............         o  75 

DeGarmo's  Essentials  of  Method.    "  It  has  as  much  sound  thought  to 

the  sciuare  inch  as  anything  I  know  of  in  pedagogics."  —  Supt.  Balliet, 
Springfield,  Mass. 0.65 

Hall's  Methods  of  Teaching  History.  "  Its  excellence  and  helpful- 
ness ought  to  secure  it  many  readers." —  The  Nntioti.       .....         1.50 

Seidel'S  Industrial  Education.  "  It  answers  triumphantly  all  objections 
to  the  introduction  of  maiuial  training  to  the  public  schools."  —  Charles  H. 
Ham,  Chicago 0.90 

Badlam's  Suggestive  Lessons  on  Language  and  Reading. 

"  The  book  is  all  that  it  claims  to  be  and  nu)re.     It  abounds  in  material  that 

will  be  of  service  to  the  progressive  teacher."  —  .Supt.  Dutton,  New  Haven.         1.50 

Red'way's  Teachers'  Manual  of  Geography.    "  Its  hints  to  teachers 

are  invaluable,  while  its  chapters  on  '  Modern  Facts  and  Ancient  Fancies  '  will 
bi;  a   revelation   to  many." — Albx.    E.    Fryh,  Author  of   "  The  Child  in 

Nature.''^ .         0.65 

Nichols'  Topics  In  Geography.  "  Contains  excellent  hints  and  sug- 
gestions of  incalculable  aid  to  school  teachers." —  Oakland (Cal.)  Tribune,      ,        0.65 


D.  C.  HEATH  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

BOSTON,    NliW    YORK    ANO   CHICAGO. 


Elementary  Science, 


By  Geo.  Ricks,  Inspector  of  Schools,  London  School  Board.     Cloth.      352  pages.     Re- 
tail price,  1.50. 


V^atiiral  History  Object  Lessons,   a  Manual  for  Teachers. 

By  Geo.  Ricks,  Inspector  of  Schools,  1 
tail  price,  1.50. 

Guides  for  Science-Teaching. 

Published  under  the  auspices  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History.  For 
teachers  who  desire  to  practically  instruct  classes  in  Natural  History,  and  designed  to  supply 
such  information  as  they  are  not' likely  to  get  from  any  other  source.  26  to  200  pages  each. 
Paper. 

I.     Hyatt's  About  Pebbles,  10  cts.  VIII.     Hyatt's  Insects. 

II.     Goodale's  Few  Common  Plants,  20     XII.     Crosby's  Common  Minerals  and 
cts.  Rocks,  40  cts.     Cloth,  60  cts. 

III.  Hyatt's  Sponges,  20  cents.  XIII.     Richards'  First  Lessons  in  Min- 

IV.  Agassiz's  First  Lesson  IN  Natural  erals,  10  cts. 

History,  25  cts.  XIV.    Bowditch's  Hints  for  Teachers 

V.  Hyatt's  Coral  and  Echinoderms,  on  Physiology,  20  cts. 

30  cts.  XV.    Clafp's  Observations  on  Common 

VI.  Hyatt's  Mollusca,  30  cts.  Minerals,  30  cts. 
VII.    Hyatt's  Worms  and  Crustacea, 

30  cts. 

U^Ote    Book.      To  accompany  Science  Guide  No.  XV. 
Paper.    48  pages,  ruled  and  printed.     Price,  15  cents. 

Science   Teaching  in  the  Schools. 

By  Wm.  N.  Rice,  Prof,  of  Geology,  Wesleyan  Univ.,  Conn.    Paper.   46  pp.    Price,  86  cts. 

Elementary  Course  in  Practical  Zoology. 

By  B.  P.  Colton,  A.  M.,  Professor  of  Science,  Illinois  Normal  University.  Cloth. 
iq6  pages.     Price  by  mail,  85  cts.;   Introduction  price,  80  cts. 

First  Book  of  Geology. 

By  N.  S.  Shaler,  Professor  of  Palaeontology,  Harvard  University.  272 pages,  with  130 
figures  in  the  text.      Pnce  by  mail,  i.io  ;    Introduction  price,  i. 00. 

The  Teaching  of  Geology. 

By  N.  S.  Shaler,  author  of  First  Book  in  Geology.     Paper.     74  pages.     Price,  25  cents. 

Astronomical  Lantern  and  How  to  Find  the  Stars. 

By  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke.  Intended  to  familiarize  students  with  the  constel- 
lations, by  comparing  them  with  fac-similes  on  the  lantern  face.  Price  of  the  Lantern,  in 
improved  form,  with  seventeen  slides  and  a  copy  of  "How  to  Find  the  Stars,"  ^4.50. 
"  How  to  Find  the  Stars,"  separately.     Paper.     47  pages.     Price  15  cts. 

Studies  in  Nature  and  Language  Lessons, 


By  Prof.  T.  Berry  Smith,  of  Central  College,  Fayette,  Mo.  A  combination  of  simple 
natural-history  object  lessons,  with  elementary  work  in  language.  Boards.  121  pages.  Price, 
50  cts.     Parts  I.  and  II.     48  pages.     Price,  20  cts. 


D.    C.    HEATH    &    CO.,    Publishers, 

BOSTON,   NEW  YORK,   AND    CHICAGO. 


^  Laboratory   Method 
j^   English   Literature. 

The  following  Guides  to  the  Study  of  Nineteenth 

Centuvy  AuthofS  were  prepared  by  Professor  Louise  Manning 
Hodgkins  of  Wellesley  College  for  her  own  students.  The  frequent  de- 
mand for  them  from  teachers,  literary  clubs,  and  students  of  other  colleges 
led  to  their  publication  for  general  use. 

The  papers  have  been  arranged  in  an  order  to  remind  the  thoughtful 
student  of  the  great  contemporaneous,  political,  and  social  interests  which 
have  found  expression  in  the  revolutionary  energy  of  the  Georgian  and 
the  scientific  earnestness  of  the  Victorian  era.  The  books  of  reference 
have  been  selected  from  many  times  their  number,  and  always  because  the 
writer  recommended  offers  a  distinctly  fresh  thought  in  the  criticism  or 
analysis  of  the  author.  While  every  good  reader  is  aware  that  the  poorest 
thing  an  author  has  said  is  often  better  than  the  best  the  critics  have  said 
about  him,  he  also  knows  that  the  opinion  of  a  good  critic  goes  far  to 
establish  in  the  mind  of  the  student  a  worthy  basis  of  sound  judgment. 

The  author  will  gratefully  receive  notice  of  valuable  books  of  reference 
which  may  have  been  overlooked,  or  which  were  altogether  wanting  ii.  her 
itudies  in  a  library  which,  though  generous,  was  not  exhaustive. 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  suggest  that  the  blank  pages  of  these  Leaflets 
are  intended  for  an  outline  of  a  lecture,  and  the  addition  of  other  booka 
of  reference. 

The  series  consists  of  Guides  to  the  study  of  the  following  English  and 
American  authors :  — 

Scott,  Lamb,  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Byron,  Shelley,  Keats,  Macaulay, 
Dickens,  Thackeray,  Robert  Browning,  Mrs.  Browning,  Carlyle,  Georgs 
Eliot,  Tennyson,  Rossetti,  Irving,  Bryant,  Hawthorne,  Longfellow,  Emer« 
•on,  Whittier,  Holmes,  and  Lowell. 

Price,  5  cents  each,  5 300  per  hundred;  or  complete,  bound  in  cloth. 
Kt  $i.oa> 


D.    C.    HEATH    &    CO.,   Publishers, 

Boston,  New  York,  and  Chicago. 


ENGLISH, 


Hyde's  Lessons  in  English.     Book  L     (Price,  35  cents.) 

For  third  and  fourth  years  of  school.  Contains  exercises  for  reproduction,  picture 
lessons,  letter  writing,  uses  of  parts  of  speech,  etc. 

Hyde's  Lessons  in  English.  Book  IL.  With  Supplement.  (Price,  60  cents.) 
For  Grammar  schools.  Has  enough  technical  grammar  for  correct  use  of  language. 
Supplement  bound  alone,  30  cents :   Lessons  in  English,  Book  II,  50  cents. 

Meiklejohn^s  English  Language.     (Price,  $1.20.) 

The  following  two  books  in  one  volume.  Readable  style.  Treats  salient  features  with  i, 
master's  skill  and  with  the  utmost  clearness  and  simplicity. 

Meiklejohns  English  Grammar.     (Price,  80  cents) 

Also  composition,  versification,  paraphrasing,  etc.     For  high  schools  and  colleges. 

Meiklejohns  English  Literature.     (Price,  80  cents.) 

For  high  schools  and  colleges.     A  compact  and  reliable  statement  of  the  essentials. 

Meiklejohns  History  of  the  English  Language.     (Price,  30  cents.) 
Part  III.  of  English  Literature,  above.     78  pages. 

Meiklejohn's  History  of  Ejtglish  Literature.     (Price,  40  cents.) 
Part  IV,  of  English  Literature,  above.     116  pages. 

IVilliam's  Composition  and  Rhetoric  by  practice.     (Price,  75  cents.) 

For  high  school  and  college.  Combines  the  smallest  amount  of  theory  with  an  abundance 
of  practice. 

Strang s  Exercises  in  English.     (Price,  35  cents.) 

Examples  in  Syntax,  Accidence,  and  Style  for  criticism  and  correction. 

Hodgkins  Studies  in  English  Literature,     f Price,  $1.50.) 

Gives  full  lists  of  aids  for  laboratory  method.  Twenty-six  authors.  A  separate  pamphlet 
on  each  author.  Price  5  cts.  each,,  or  per  hundred,  ;f3.oo  ;  complete  in  cloth  (adjustable 
file  cover). 

Huffcufs  English  in  the  Preparatory  School.     (Price,  25  cents.) 

Presents  as  practically  as  possible  some  of  the  advanced  methods  of  teaching  English 
grammar  and  composition  in  the  secondary  schools. 

Wood'ward''s  Study  of  English.     (Price,  25  cents.) 

Discusses  English  teaching  from  primary  school  to  high  collegiate  work. 

Genung's  Study  of  Rhetoric.     (Price,  25  cents.) 

Shows  the  most  practical  discipline  of  students  for  the  making  of  literature. 

George's  Wordsworth's  Prelude.     (Price,  $1.25.) 

Annotated  for  high  school  and  college.     Never  before  published  alone. 

George's  Selections  from  Words-worth.     (Price,  $1.50.) 

168  poems  chosen  with  a  view  to  illustrate  the  growth  of  the  poet's  miud  and  art. 

Corson's  Introduction  to  Brozuning.     (Price,  $1.50.) 

A  guide  to  the  study  of  Browning's  Poetry.     Also  has  33  poems  with  notes  (Pa.  50c.). 

Corson's  Introduction  to  the  study  of  Shakespeare.     (Price,  $1.50.) 

A  critical  study  of  Shakespeare's  art,  with  examination  questions  upon  special  plays. 

Cook's  Judith .     ( Price,  $  1 .  50  ) 

The  Old  English  epic  poem,  with  introduction,  translation,  glossary  and  fac-simile  page. 

Simond's  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  and  his  Poetns.     (Price,  75  cents.) 
168  pages.    With  biography,  and  critical  analysis  of  his  poems. 

D.    C.   HEATH  &-  CO.,  Publishers, 

BOSTON,  NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO. 


^"MHH 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


REC'D  LD-URl) 

JUN2  4  19/t4 
NOV  10  1974 


Form  L!)-Serii's  44  4 


1 


UCLA-Young   Research   Library 

LB1507   .M29 


L  009  561    105  9 


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(?-^ 


